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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



THE NEW TESTAMENT 
FOR LEARNERS 



Uniform with this volume: 
THE OLD TESTAMENT FOR LEARNERS 




PALESTINE 



The New Testament 

FOR LEARNERS 

BY 

• DR. H. OORT DR. I. HOOYKAAS 

PROFESSOR OF HEBREW ANTIQUITIES PASTOR AT ROTTERDAM 

AT LEIDEN 

WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF 

DR. A. KUENEN 

PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AT LEIDEN 

SUNDAY SCHOOL EDITION 
Etotijortjeii ^Translation 



BOSTON 
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 

1900 



PALESTINE 

IN THE TIME OF 

JtBUB. 

After Kiepert's Bible Atlas, 
Seoond Eoi 










59721 

pfcu lOPlt* KtCElVED 

' OCT 11 1900 

Copyright •otry 

'*.&**$.%**>. 

SECOND COPY. 

0<-liv«rwl to 

OROM DIVISION, 

OCT 26 I90U 



^>3 



Copyright, 1878, 
By Eoberts Brothers. 

Copyright, 1900, 
By Little, Brown, and Company. 



2&ntoersttg 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A. 



CONTENTS. 



Ihtroduotion : Historical Sketch of Jesus and the Apostolic Age 1 



OHAPTKB 
I. 

n. 
in. 

IV. 

v. 

VI. 

vn. 

VIII 
IX. 

x. 



XI. 

xn. 
xm. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 
XVII. 

XVIII. 



BOOK I. 

The Descent of Jesus (Matthew i. ; Luke iii. 23-38) . . 35 

The Birth and Youth of John (Luke i. 6-25, 57-80) . . 42 

The Birth of Jesus (Luke i. 26-56 ; ii. 1-20) 51 

The Presentation in the Temple (Luke ii. 21-39) ... 69 

The Wise Men from the East (Matthew ii.) 68 

Jesus in the Temple at the age of Twelve (Luke ii. 40-52) 79 

John the Baptist (Luke iii. 1-18) 96 

The Baptism of Jesus (Mark L 9-1 i) 112 

Jesus begins his Work (Matthew iv. 12-25 ; viii. 14-16) . 122 
Jesus as the Teacher of his People (Matthew vii. 24-27, 
xiii. 1-23, 31-35, 44-48, 51, 52, xiv. 13-21 ; Mark iy. 

26-29) 139 

The Beatitudes (Matthew y. 3-12) 166 

The Vocation of the Citizens of God's Kingdom (Matthew 

v. 13-16, xxv. 14-46, vi. 19-21, 24-34) 163 

The Gospel of the Kingdom (Matthew xviii. 12-14) . . 172 
The Friends of Jesus (Matthew x. 1-14 ; Mark ix. 14-29; 

Luke viii. 1-3, ix. 51-62, xiv. 25-35) 178 

Jesus the Friend of Sinners ( Matthew viii. 1-4, ix. 1-13 ; 

Luke vii. 36-60, xv 8-10) 196 

Jesus and the Religion of his People (Mark ii. 18— iii. 6) . 211 
Jesus and the Religion of his People — Continued (Mat- 
thew vii. 12, vi. 1-6, 16-18, v. 20-22, 27, 28, 33-48, 17) 219 
The Prophet in his Native Place (Luke iv. 16-30 ; Mat- 
thew xiii. *4-58 ; Mark iii. 20, 21 31 -35) 234 



VI 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 

XIX. 

XX. 

XXI. 

XXII. 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

xxvm. 

XXIX. 
XXX. 

XXXI. 
XXXII. 



XXXIII. 

XXXIV 

XXXV. 

XXXVI. 

XXXVII. 



PAGE 

The Reception of Jesus by the Pharisees (Luke xiv. 

1, 7-15, xv. 1, 2, 11-32, xviii. 9-14, vii. 31-35) . . 241 
How the Preaching of Jesus was received by the 

Masses (Matthew xi. 1-15, 20-24) 253 

The Source of Jesus' Strength (Matthew viii. 23-27, 

xiv. 22-33; Luke xi. 1-13) 259 

The Gathering Storm (Matthew xiv. l-13a, xv 1-20; 

Luke xiii. 31-33) 270 

Jewish Thirst for the Marvellous (Luke xvii. 20, 21 ; 

Matthew xvi. 1-3 ; Mark viii. 11-13) 284 

Jesus and the Samaritans and Heathen (Matthew xx. 

1-16, xii. 38-42, xxii. 1-14; Luke x. 25-37, xiii. 

28-30, vii. 1-10, xvii. 11-19) 292 

Jesus the Messiah (Mark viii. 27-30 ; Matthew iv. 1-11) 311 
Conflict and Triumph Foreseen (Matthew xvii. 10-13, 

xvi. 21-28) 325 

On the Way to Jerusalem (Mark x. 1-31; Luke xiii. 

22-25) 335 

On the Way to Jerusalem — Continued (Luke xii. 49-53, 

57-59, xiii. 1-9, xi. 24-26, xix. 1-10 ; Matthew xx. 

17-34) 347 

Jesus appears at Jerusalem (Matthew xxi. 1-16) . 357 

Jesus on the Defensive (Matthew xxi. 17, 23-32, xxii. 

15-40; John vii. 53-viii. 11) 370 

Jesus takes the Aggressive (Matthew xxii. 41-46. xxiii. 

1-7, 16-28 ; Luke xi. 52, 47, 48, xx. 47, xvi. 19-31 ; 

Mark xii. 1-12, xiv. 1, 2) 382 

Jesus among Friends (Luke xxi. 1-4, xvi. 1-9, 11, 12, 

14; Matthew x. 41, 42, 16-23, xxiii. 8-12, 34-39, 

xxi. 18-20, xxiv. 1-3, ff., 42-51, xxv. 1-13, xxvi. 1, 2, 

6-13) 393 

The Last Evening (Mark xiv. 10-26) 407 

Gethsemane (Matthew xxvi. 30-56) 419 

Before the Sanhedrim (Matthew xxvi. 67-76) ... 428 
The Sentence of Death Confirmed (Mark xv. l-20u) . 437 
The Crucifixion (Mark xv. 206-47) 447 



CONTENTS. Vii 



BOOK II. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

L The Kesurrection of Jesus (Matthew xxvii. 62-xxviii. ; 

Luke xxiv. 13-53 ; Acts i. 3-14 ; 1 Corinthians xv. 3-8) 462 
II. The Community at Jerusalem (Acts i. 15-v., xii. 1-23) . 481 

III. Stephen and Philip (Matthew xvii. 1-9; Acts vi.-viii. 8, 

26-40, xi. 19-21 ; Matthew xv. 21-28) 502 

IV. The Apostle of the Gentiles (Galatians i. 13-20; Acts ix. 

1-30) 619 

V. The First Mission to the Heathen (Galatians 1, 21, 24 ; Acts 

xi. 22-30, xii. 24-xiv. ; Luke x. 1 ff., 17-20) 634 

VI. The Collision of the two Parties (Galatians ii. ; Acts xv.) . 544 
VII. The Gospel in Europe (Acts xvi.-xviii. 18 ; Mark v. 1-20) . 562 
VIII. Paul at Ephesus (2 Corinthians xi. 23-29 ; Acts xviii. 18-23, 
xix. 1-20, 23-41 ; Galatians ; Mark ix. 38-40 ; Matthew 

xii. 22-37) 576 

IX. The Community at Corinth and the Letter to Rome (Acts 
xix. 21, 22, xx. 1-6, xviii. 24-28 ; 1 Corinthians ; 2 Co- 
rinthians ; Romans) 595 

X. Paul at Jerusalem (Acts xx. 7-xxiii., viii. 9-25) .... 611 
XI. Paul's Imprisonment and Death (Acts xxiv -xxviii. ; Phi- 
lemon; Philippians) 624 

XII. The Communities after the Death of Paul (Matthew xiii. 
24-30, 36-43. Revelation ; James ; Jude. Hebrews ; 
Colossians. 2 Thessalonians ; Matthew xxiv. 4-41 , 
Luke xviii. 1-8 ; 2 Peter. 1 Peter ; Ephesians ; 2 
Timothy ; Titus ; 1 Timothy ; 1 John ; 2 John ; 3 John) 643 
XIII. The Disciple whom Jesus Loved (Gospel according to John) 666 



Chronological Survey . P . 696 

Index of Subjects 713 

Table of Bible Passages . 749 



BOOKS I. AND II. 

THE NARRATIVES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 
Prepared by Dr. I. Hooykaas 



INTRODUCTION. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JESUS AND THE 
APOSTOLIC AGE. 



NINETEEN" hundred years ago the whole civilized world 
known to the ancients bowed beneath the sceptre of 
the Emperor of Rome. Everywhere from Britain to ^Ethio- 
pia the Roman eagles had marked the track of victory. The 
Atlantic Ocean and the African desert had interposed im- 
passable natural barriers to the West and South ; the Rhine 
and Danube formed a northern frontier against the Barbari- 
ans. In the East alone the invincible legions had been 
baffled, for the Parthian or new Persian monarchy contested 
with varying fortune of war the possession of the district of 
the Euphrates, and the wandering tribes of north-western 
Arabia were troublesome neighbors whom it was easy to 
defeat but impossible to subdue. For this reason Syria and 
Phoenicia were generally occupied by a very considerable mil- 
itaiy force. 

The whole of this enormous area was divided into provinces 
(conquered territories) of Rome, and was ruled by governors. 
The only exception was furnished b} T Middle and Southern 
Italy ; for about a century before the commencement of our 
era the inhabitants of these districts, sword in hand, had 
extorted from the citizens of Rome the concession of equal 
rights, and now stood under the immediate government of 
the Roman Senate. But even in the East there were some 
few people who were still dignified with the name of allies, 
and allowed to retain their own princes as vassals of Rome. 
These people, though bound to pa} T tribute and serve in the 
arm}', still preserved the shadow of independence. Origi- 
nally the title of Roman citizen was only allowed to a foreigner 

VOL. Ill- 1 



2 JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

as a reward for some signal service, but eventually it was 
granted to any one who paid a fixed sum of money. The 
title was greatly coveted, for it gave those who bore it the 
privilege of appeal from the jurisdiction of the local gover- 
nors to the imperial court at Rome. 

With regard to language the gigantic empire was split into 
two great sections. Latin prevailed in the West ; but in the 
East, ever since the times of Alexander the Great, Greek had 
been the universal language. 

Octavianus, better known under the name of Augustus, 
heir to the great Julius Caesar, was the first to ascend the 
imperial throne, which he did after a sanguinary civil war 
(reigned 29 b.c. to 14 a.d.). And now, for the first time 
for centuries, there was peace ; and the doors of the temple 
of Janus at Rome, which alwa} T s stood open in time of war, 
were closed. Under Augustus the provinces were divided 
into two classes. To those which had neither internal com- 
motions nor hostile invasions to fear governors were appointed 
yearly b}^ the Senate ; but those which were threatened by 
tumult or war were governed by nominees of the Emperor. 
These imperial provinces were for the most part situated on 
the frontier, and in them the five-and-twenty legions of the 
empire were quartered. In fact their governors were mihtary 
commanders, each of them supported by a general overseer 
of the taxation. Important sub-districts, such as Palestine, 
were sometimes placed under the immediate control of dep- 
uty-governors, who combined the administration of the mili- 
tary, the judicial, and the financial affairs of their respective 
districts. 

The Roman supremacy weighed like lead upon the subject 
peoples. So far from respecting their independence the gov- 
ernors aimed rather at extinguishing all national peculiarities. 
But the worst abuse was the S3 T stematic draining of the prov- 
inces by the contractors of taxes, who practised the most 
shameless extortion with impunity. On the other hand, the 
widest toleration of the various religions was practised by 
Rome. The governors were instructed to respect the religious 
convictions of the peoples. Thus, for example, the military 
standards to which the Caesar's image was affixed had never 
been carried into Jerusalem before the time of Pilate, out of 
regard to the Jewish horror of image- worship. The Roman 
magistrates in many of the conquered districts took part offi- 
cially in the public worship of their respective territories ; 
and Augustus even went so far as to assign a portion of the 



JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 3 

imperial revenues drawn from Palestine to the maintenance 
of the daily sacrifice in the temple on Mount Zion. Generally 
speaking, then, the Romans were far from desiring to force 
the worship of their own gods upon all their allies or subjects. 
But there was one exception to this rule. It was required, 
throughout the whole empire, that divine honors should be 
paid to the Emperor ; and the demand involved the Jews, and 
the Christians after them, in grievous perplexities. 

The Romans themselves were forbidden by law to go over 
to a foreign religion ; but the regulation was seldom enforced. 
Indeed, the religious condition of the ancient world made it 
impossible to carry it out ; for faith in the national deities 
was tottering to its fall among Romans and Greeks alike. 
In fact, it had out-lived itself; and philosophy had powerfully 
contributed to its overthrow. A deep dissatisfaction made 
the want of something better keenly felt, and an ever stronger 
yearning after a purer conception of the nature and the will 
of the Deity threw many a one into the arms of Judaism, just 
as it afterwards prepared the way for Christianity. 



II. 

The civil war between the brothers Hyrcanus and Aristo- 
bulus, sons of the Maccabaean prince Alexander Jannseus, had 
brought the Romans under Pompey into Judaea (64 b.c.) ; 
and once established there as rulers, they obstinately main- 
tained their footing. It was through their favor and by the 
force of their arms that the Idumsean Herod, son of Antipater, 
the adviser of Hyrcanus, secured the Jewish throne (from 37 
to 4 b.c). He threw down the temple of Zerubbabel, and 
raised a new and magnificent structure in its place. The 
building of this temple occupied eight j^ears, and the cost was 
enormous. Herod was an energetic and magnificent ruler, 
but a thorough despot. His suspicious character and un- 
natural cruelty merited the burning hatred with which he was 
regarded by his subjects. This aversion was so intense that 
on his death the Jews sent a special embassy to Rome, praj 7 - 
ing the Emperor not to impose upon them a prince of the 
house of Herod, but rather to allow them to follow their own 
laws and customs, under the supervision of the governor of 
Syria. But their petition was rejected, and Augustus, giving 
effect to the will of Herod, divided the country among that 
monarca's sons. Archelaus received Idumsea, Judaea, and Sa- 



4 JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

mana ; Herod Antipas became tetrarch of Galilee and Feraea ; 
and Philip obtained the northern regions east of the Jordan. 
After a reign of nine 3'ears Archelaus was accused at Rome, 
by his own subjects, of gross misdeeds, was deposed by the 
Emperor, and banished to Vienna (in Gaul), a.d. 6. His 
territory was added to the province of Syria, and came under 
the jurisdiction of the Roman governors who had their seat at 
Caesarea, on the sea coast. The fifth of these governors, 
Pontius Pilate (a.d. 26-37) is the one best known to us. On 
tite death of Philip, in a.d. 34, his district also was incorpo- 
rated with Syria, and some j^ears afterwards, in a.d. 39, Herod 
Antipas was deposed by the Romans and banished to Lyons. 

Meanwhile, however, a grandson of Herod the Great, by 
another line, had obtained the title of King, through the 
favor of the Emperor, and had had the former territory of 
Philip assigned to him (a.d. 37). Galilee and Persea were 
now (a.d. 39) added to his domain ; and finally Judaea, Idu- 
maea, and Samaria were placed under him, — so that the whole 
land of the Jews was once more united (a.d. 41-44) under 
a prince of its own, Herod Agrippa I. He succeeded in gain- 
ing the affection of his people by his strict regard to religious 
observances, but he died after a very short reign. His son, 
Agrippa II., did not succeed him, but was afterwards, in 
a.d. 53, appointed to the general supervision of the temple, 
with the right of nominating the high priest. Henceforth, all 
Palestine was a Roman Province, and as there had been seven 
governors before Agrippa I. so there were seven after him. 
The fourth and fifth of these, Claudius Felix (a.d. 52-61), 
and Porcius Festus (a.d. 61-63) are mentioned in the New 
Testament. Under the seventh, Gessius Floras, that revolt 
against Rome burst out which ended in the fall of the Jewish 
state and the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple (a.d. 
66-70). 

The cruelty and extortion, the caprice and incompetence 
of Florus had doubtless hastened this outburst ; but, inde- 
pendently of all this, it might have been long foreseen. For 
a century past an increasing fermentation had been obser- 
vable among the Jews. It had given rise as early as the 
times of Herod the Great to repeated tumults, and when, at 
the deposition of Archelaus, the Roman governor held a 
census in the new province, certain wild spirits had unfurled 
the banner of revolt against Rome. These "zealots" as 
they were called, for God and the fatherland, gradually 
formed a party in Israel, and grew more numerous and more 



JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

fanatical } T ear by year, till at last they utterly destroyed the 
influence of the party of order and submission, and carried 
away the whole people with them. 

Let us now glance at the. internal organization and con- 
dition of the people. The highest official position was that 
of the high priest ; but Herod the Great had set the example 
of deposing and appointing the high priest b}^ royal authority, 
and had conferred the dignit}^ upon a family of priests, who 
though Jews were not natives of Palestine : so the lustre of the 
office had greatly declined. The post was passed backwards 
and forwards between a few families, and not many of the 
high priests remained in office much above a year. Their 
ambition was then satisfied, and the}' willingly resigned the 
honor in favor of some successor, especially if he were a 
brother or other near relative. As a rule they secured but 
little personal respect from the people. The high priest 
was the president of the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem, a body 
which pronounced judgment without appeal, as the supreme 
Jewish authorit}' both in civil and ecclesiastical affairs. Its 
decisions were even held binding by the Jews residing in 
foreign countries. But it had no power to carry out the sen- 
tence of death without the consent of the Roman governor. 
There were also judges in every cit} T in Palestine, and each 
synagogue had its council of elders, who exercised certain 
judicial powers. 

Israel's great misfortune was want of unanimity. Up to 
the last moment of its existence the nation was torn asunder 
by bitter religious and political disputes. The Pharisees and 
Sadducees in particular were violently opposed to one another. 
The Sadducees were the aristocratical part}', composed of the 
families from which the high priests were drawn, together 
with their adherents and certain other distinguished families. 
They laid great stress upon the privileges of the priests and 
upon the dignity and the sanctit}' of the order ; they sedulously 
cultivated the friendship of their rulers, including the Romans, 
and insisted upon submission to authorny and the mainte- 
nance of order. The Pharisees, on the other hand, were the 
national party. Filled with a lofty sense of Israel's pre-emi- 
nence above other nations, and the privileges it might claim as 
the people of God, they scrupulously avoided all intercourse 
with the heathen, endeavored to develop the religion of the 
Law in accordance with the wants of the age, and maintained 
the sanctity of all Israelites as members of the priestly nation. 
Narrow-minded, scrupulous, and formal, they were neverthe- 



6 JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

less inspired with untiring zeal in t'he service of Yahweh. with 
unreserved devotion to his glory, and with inextinguishable 
hope in the future of his people. As a rule, the love and 
honor in which the people held them equalled the indif- 
ference or even dislike with which they regarded the Sad- 
ducees. But the Sadducees, on the other hand, held the 
reins of authority, though the Pharisees could make their 
influence felt in the Sanhedrim, to which a certain number 
of members were appointed from the order of the Scribes. 
These Scribes received their education at the University or 
Colleges of Jerusalem, made the study of the Law the task 
of their lives, and then interpreted and applied it in the 
s3*nagogues. For the most part they adopted the principles 
of the Pharisees with heart and soul. The Zealots, too, 
belonged originally to the Pharisaic school ; but while the 
majority of the party were opposed to violence, the Zealots 
were determined agitators, and were finally the cause of 
Israel's fall, after a hopeless struggle. 

Lastly, the Essenes must be added to the Pharisees and 
Sadducees. They were not simply a school or party, how- 
ever, but a special sect which had risen out of Pharisaism. 
They may be best described as an order of Jewish monks. 
Their numbers are estimated at four thousand. Still more 
strict and scrupulous than any of the other Jews, they were 
not content with the ordinary observance of the Law, and so 
withdrew themselves from all public life in nervous fear of 
contamination, and formed a little societ}' by themselves. 

The mass of the people remained as a rule unshaken in 
their fidelity to their religion, scrupulous in the observance of 
the Law, and zealous in attending the synagogue and, at the 
high feasts, the temple. They were impressed with a sense 
of their own dignity, which was only too apt to degenerate 
into narrow-minded national pride and hatred of the for- 
eigner or heathen. They bore the yoke of Rome uneasily, 
and entertained an unmeasured contempt and aversion for 
the Samaritans. They were in constant hope of being deliv- 
ered by their God from the miseries they now endured ; 
and this "Messianic expectation," which filled so many 
bosoms, sometimes rose to the glow of inspiration, or burst 
into a flame of consuming passion. Judaea, and especially 
Jerusalem, was the seat of Jewish orthodoxy ; that is to say, 
of the most fanatical enthusiasm for the strict observance of 
the Law and Levitical " cleanness." Galilee, the most beau- 
tiful portion of the country, was surrounded by heathens 



JESUS AND THE AP0S10LIC AGE. / 

and inhabited by a half-Jewish, half-heathen population. 
The Galiloeans were as full of religious zeal as the men of 
Judaea themselves, and indeed were still more easily roused 
to action b} T the cry ' ' for God and for Israel ! " But they 
were nevertheless considered more or less " unclean." There 
was, moreover, a tolerably large class of persons who either 
did not observe the Law with sufficient strictness, or were 
too free in their intercourse with the heathen. They were 
known as u the peoples of the land," and were looked down 
upon as unclean. So, too, we meet with a class described 
as " sinners," who were excluded from the civil and eccle- 
siastical communion of the Jews. The sentence of excom- 
munication had been pronounced upon them by the synagogue 
for some grave moral or religious offence. To the same class 
belonged the tax-collectors or " publicans," who were branded 
as hirelings of the Roman conquerors and traitors to their 
fatherland and their religion, and were hated and cursed by 
their countrymen. 

Ever since Shalmancser and Nebuchadrezzar had carried 
away the Israelites into captivity, and still more since the 
successors of Alexander the Great had founded their king- 
doms, a large proportion of the Jewish nation had been scat- 
tered all over the ancient world, and was called "Israel in 
the Dispersion." In Syria, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece, 
and Italy, but still more in Babylonia and Egypt, consider- 
able communities of Jews were established. The}^ retained 
their national and religious allegiance, formed little societies 
by themselves, studied the Law in their synagogues, kept up 
an intimate connection with their true fatherland, and at the 
Passover especially streamed by thousands to the temple. 
In Alexandria the Jews rose to a most distinguished position, 
and the more cultivated among them attempted to effect a 
union between the religion of Yahweh and the Greek phi- 
losoplry and culture. It was there that the Old Testament 
was translated into Greek, and so made accessible to stran- 
gers. There, too, a new Jewish literature sprang up, and a 
curious school of Jewish philosophy flourished. The Jews 
were favored by the authorities almost everywhere, and, 
though they were hated by the heathen populace, they made 
numerous converts to their religion. These converts were 
known as " Proselytes." 

Before long Israel was to yield to the heathen world the 
religious privilege of which it was so proud, — the possession 
of the purest knowledge of God's nature and his will. 



JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 



in. 

Such was the soene upon which Jesus and his Apostles 
appeared. 

Jesus — whom three or four hundred millions of disciples 
so justly honor as the greatest of all who have ever lived on 
earth — was born and bred in Nazareth, a secluded mountain 
village in Galilee. His parents were called Joseph and Mary, 
and belonged to the humbler class of citizens. They had a 
large family ; but none of its members except James, and 
perhaps Judas, ever gained a place of distinction among 
the followers of Jesus. Bat little is known of the youth of 
Jesus, nor can we say with certaintj^ how old he was when 
he entered upon public life. 

But we do know the occasion of his leaving the narrow 
circle in which he lived. In the wilderness of Judah, not 
far from the Jordan, a prophet of the name of John had 
risen. The fact was remarkable enough in itself, for no 
prophet had appeared for four or five centuries past, and the 
gift of prophecy seemed to have vanished altogether. But 
the striking character of John himself, his severe mode of life, 
somewhat analogous to that of the Essenes, and still more 
the subject-matter of his preaching, all combined to make 
him the object, for a time at least, of universal attention. 
He preached that the deliverance was near at hand, that 
God was about to fulfil the hope of former generations, the 
promises of ancient oracles, and that the Messianic kingdom 
would be soon established. He called upon his countrymen 
to amend their lives, and so to hasten the dawn of this glori- 
ous day, and, above all, to escape the fearful judgment which 
God would bring upon all sinners. He collected a band of 
disciples round him, and, if any one listened to his preaching 
and gave evidence of true repentance, he baptized him in the 
Jordan. By means of this rite, the symbol of purity, he in- 
tended to proceed at once to the practical measure of inau- 
gurating the Messianic kingdom, by forming a community of 
its future subjects. 

The fame of John has found its way to Nazareth ; and 
Jesus, whose soul burns for the coming of the kingdom of 
God, lays down his work, bids farewell to his family, and sets 
out from Nazareth towards the spot where John is preaching. 
He listens to him, is baptized by him, and remains some 
time with him. 



JESUS ANE THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 9 

But the career of John is brought to a sudden close. 
Herod Antipas has flung him into the dungeon whence he is 
never to come out alive. Is there no one to take up the task 
he has been compelled to leave unfinished, and prepare 
Israel for the approaching Messianic kingdom? Yes. The 
violent interruption of the work of John was the signal for 
Jesus to come forward. The subject-matter of his preach- 
ing was at first almost identical with that of his predecessor. 
But, as his character was widely different from John's, so he 
took up his task in quite another spirit, and cherished a far 
more exalted and spiritual conception of the Messianic king- 
dom. He did not withdraw into the desert, but returned to 
Galilee, mingled in the busy life of the people, preached 
when and where he could find the opportunity, and turned 
more especially to the outcasts of Jewish society. He looked 
upon it as his special task to teach the despised ' ' peoples of 
the land " something of God and the way to serve him, and to 
raise the publicans and sinners out of their moral wretched- 
ness. If he could succeed in this, the kingdom of God would 
no longer be delayed. 

He established himself at Capernaum, a busy place by 
the sea of Galilee, on the great commercial road to Syria ; 
for he knew that he would not find a ready hearing in his 
native place. When he did preach there, some time after- 
wards, his fellow- townsmen, who had never noticed an}^ thing 
that marked him off from others, could not bring them- 
selves to think of him as a prophet, and even his own family 
failed to understand him. Jesus let nothing discourage him, 
but went about through the different towns and villages of 
Galilee preaching of the kingdom of God, generally in figu- 
rative language, and in parables or stories ; bearing witness 
to God's infinite and eternal love, and the holiness that he 
requires from his children ; seeking out the lost with a pa- 
tience that was never weaiy. The impression he produced 
was deep, especially when he had cured a certain number of 
persons subject to nervous diseases, whose sickness was 
attributed to evil spirits supposed to dwell in them. A host 
of disciples, some of them women, gathered round him, and 
wherever he went the people thronged to hear him. He chose 
twelve of his followers as his constant companions, to re- 
ceive a more special training, and to be his trusted friends. 
He intended eventually to send them out to publish everywhere 
the approaching establishment of the kingdom of God. 

How long he worked in Galilee is uncertain. The term 
1* 



10 JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

of his preaching is usually estimated at three years, but 
without sufficient reason. Others think that it only lasted a, 
little more than a year (a.d. 34-35), and there is much to 
be said in support of this opinion. But however long or 
short his ministry may have been, he was unwearied in his 
labors. He never allowed himself a moment's rest, and, 
since the hours of the day left him no time of leisure, it was 
no rare thing for him to sacrifice the hours of sleep in order 
to recover from the distractions of the daytime, to think over 
his work and his surroundings, and to strengthen himself 
by prayer. 

His attitude towards the religion of Israel requires special 
explanation. He did not reject it, but in the spirit of the 
great prophets of the eighth and seventh centuries he en- 
deavored to develop its higher aspects. Outward cere- 
monies, precepts about the Sabbath, Levitical " cleanness," 
prohibitions of certain kinds of food and all such things, 
though regarded by his contemporaries as the very essence 
of religion, had little value in his eye. The moral re- 
quirements of the Law, on the other hand, he placed in the 
foreground, at the same time extending their application. 
Irreproachable conduct was not enough for him ; he required 
purity in the very dispositions of the heart, boundless love, 
mercy, humility, gentleness. He spoke of God as the Father 
in heaven, whose love embraces all and who desires that all 
should be saved. He rose above narrow national prejudices ; 
felt the priceless worth of every human soul, and had such 
deep, firm faith in human nature that he threw open the 
gates of salvation to every one, even the most abandoned. 

Jesus could not preach and work in this way without 
coming into collision with those who were still guiding the 
religious life of his people along the line of development it 
had followed ever since the time of Ezra. Indeed, he must 
eventually come into collision with the Government itself. 
At first there was nothing to bring him into contact with the 
Sadducees, and they took no notice of him. The Essenes, 
too, had so completely shut themselves off from social life 
that he never met them after his appearance in public. On 
the other hand, he was thrown into the closest relations with 
the Pharisees from the beginning to the end of his public 
life. No doubt he had been taught, as part of his religious 
education, to esteem them highly ; it was from them, espe- 
cially from the Galilsean Scribes, that he had gained in the 
synagogue his earliest knowledge of the Holy Scriptures of 



JEoUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 11 

his people ; and their zeal for the kingdom of God, their long- 
ing for its establishment, and their constant straining after 
" righteousness" had marked them out as his spiritual 
guides. And although he gradually became aware of much 
that offended him in their whole scheme of life, in their 
formality and worship of the letter, their self-righteousness 
and hardness towards the outcasts of church and society, yet 
at first he was willing to retain a favorable opinion of them. 
And they on their side regarded his appearance with in- 
terest, met him in no unfriendly spirit, and pointed out to 
him what the}' regarded as his mistakes. But gradually 
their relations became more strained. His intercourse with 
the unclean appeared to them a desecration of the service of 
Yahweh. Then they noticed again and again, and with 
ever-growing indignation, how careless he was in observing 
those precepts of the Law that referred to the outward life. 
At last, the}' saw clearly that he was attempting to establish 
the supremacy of a new principle of religious life, and that 
his preaching was coming into more and more direct conflict 
with the popular religion of his times. They now regarded 
him as a false prophet and a seducer of the people. And 
Jesus on his side came by this very opposition to under- 
stand the dark side of the Pharisaic teaching. He attacked 
it earnestly and emphatically, and strove to undermine its 
influence with the people. The conflict thus begun grew 
more and more violent as time went on, till at last the 
crash became inevitable. 



IV. 

Meanwhile a change had taken place in the mind of 
Jesus himself, as his experiences of life deepened. His views 
as to himself, as to the fate that awaited him, and as to 
the future of his people had been greatly modified. 

As for himself, he had never occupied a conspicuous place 
in his own thoughts. From first to last it was the work he 
had to do, and not his own person, that engaged his chief 
attention. At first he regarded himself simply as the herald 
of the kingdom of God, with the special mission of seeking 
out the "lost" of Israel. But he could not long remain 
unconscious that he had power to satisfy every religious 
want of the human heart. As he uttered the truths which his 
own soul hud revealed to him, in communion with God, he 



12 JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

learned, with absolute certainty, that these were the highest 
and purest truths which man could find ; that they made 
plain to all, whether to the repentant sinner or to the stead- 
fastly virtuous, the closeness of their relationship to God, the 
absolute reverence the} T owed to Him, and the natural union 
which should make them one with Him. Then he perceived 
that he must look for no other greater than himself, no Mes- 
siah whose forerunner he was, and who would take his stand 
above him ; and at last he made the heroic resolve that he 
would be the Messiah himself; that he himself, cost what it 
might, would found that kingdom of God, the near approach 
of which he had announced. 

But he never for a moment dreamed of ascending an earthly 
throne as the Messiah. Nothing could have been further 
from his thoughts. Long ago he had formed a far purer con- 
ception of the kingdom of God than that entertained by the 
ordinary Israelite, or even by John. He had seldom imitated 
John in hurling forth the threat of a fearful judgment to pre- 
cede the founding of the kingdom, nor had he ever shared his 
people's dreams of a fearful vengeance to be inflicted upon the 
heathen oppressors. His profound and glorious conception 
was that of a society permeated by the purest principles of 
piety and virtue, gradually extending itself by its own intrinsic 
power, until at last definitely established in all its glory by a 
special act of God. So when he determined to call this Mes- 
sianic kingdom into being himself, he had utterly renounced 
all those ideas of worldly splendor which his countiymen at- 
tached to the title of Messiah. He was more disposed to ex- 
pect that his life would close in darkness ; and, in connection 
with the unfavorable reception which he now expected for his 
sublimest conceptions, he began to dwell upon the thought 
of divine chastisement and the fearful judgment of God far 
more than he had done before. He saw that he could not 
rely on the support of the masses ; that the opposition to his 
person and his principles grew more violent from day to day ; 
that his struggle with the Pharisees, the most powerful relig- 
ious school of the times, was likely to prove fatal to himself. 
How little had he thought when first he began his work that 
it could ever come to this ! The heavens were then so clear 
above aim ; but now they were overcast with dark and ever 
darker clouds. John bad fallen a victim to his zeal for the 
kingdom of God, and in his fate Jesus now saw his own fore- 
shadowed. As time went on this presentiment grew stronger 
and stronger. It cost him an effort to reconcile himself with 



JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 13 

the thought that if he must lay down his iife for the cause, 
then facing death was an essential part of the task that was 
laid upon him, — the inauguration of that kingdom of God of 
which he had been laying the foundations. The first period 
of his ministiy is pervaded by a bright and joyous spirit, but 
henceforth his maimer becomes more depressed, and a tone 
of sadness is cast over his preaching. 

But this changed feeling was not wholly due to his altered 
expectations with reference to his own lot. He had alto- 
gether changed his views and anticipations with regard to 
Israel too. He loved his fatherland with all his heart. He 
prized the religious privileges of his people to the utmost. 
He had hoped, with the ancient prophets, that Israel would 
fulfil its calling, and would take the first place in God's king- 
dom. Though the heathen were also to be admitted, yet 
Israel would still be the guide and the light of the nations. 
But the violent opposition he had encountered on the one 
side, and the indifference he had met with on the other, had 
gradually taught him to know his people better ; and now he 
saw that the close of Israel's glorious history would be far 
other than he once had thought. His people, as a people, 
would be shut out from the kingdom of God, and his country 
was rushing upon a miserable fate. 

Jesus perceived that the decisive moment for his work, for 
bis life, for his people, was at hand. He determined to pre- 
pare his disciples for the crisis. He had never } r et proclaimed 
himself the Messiah, or given utterance to his dark forebod- 
ings. Once, when he was journeying through the northern 
portion of the country, unaccompanied except by his twelve 
more intimate companions, he asked them whom men thought 
he was, and whom they held him to be themselves. They 
answered that the mass of his followers still looked on him as 
the forerunner of the kingdom of God, but that as for them- 
selves they reverenced him as the Messiah. Jesus accepted 
their testimony, but sternly forbade them to speak of it to 
any one. Soon afterwards he added that he was not destined 
to become a king, but rather to be put to death at Jerusalem. 
But his disciples simply could not understand or believe his 
words, though he afterwards repeated them several times 
still more distinctly. 

Wiry did he go to Jerusalem if so fully conscious of the 
danger it involved ? Because it was absolutely necessary for 
the cause he had at heart that he should do so, and, when 
duty called, anxiety for his personal safety must not hold 



14 JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

hini back , His conduct had already roused such opposition 
that he could hardly limit his activity to so remote a place as 
Galilee without appearing to hold back on purpose. And 
besides, even there the opposition had become so strong that 
he could not well continue his work on the same footing as 
before. But his chief reason for going up to Jerusalem was 
that it was the focus of Israel's religious life, in which all 
great religious questions must be fought out. There and 
there only could he give his people the choice between his 
principles, his thoughts about God's character and will, his 
spiritual conception of the kingdom of God on the one hand, 
and the prevailing formalism represented by the Scribes on 
ihe other. His countrymen must then make their choice 
He took advantage of the approaching Passover to execute 
his plan, for thousands of Jews, from every quarter of the 
world, would stream to the temple to celebrate that feast. 

He accomplished this memorable journey to the capital 
by easy stages. He took his way through the district east 
of Jordan, crossed the ford at Jericho, spent the night in that 
city with a public functionary of the name of Zacchaeus, 
passed on through Bethany, where he already had or now 
made faithful friends, and then crossed the Mount of Olives, 
and entered Jerusalem surrounded b} T a troop of Galilaeans, 
who raised shouts of jo}^ and triumph in his honor. He at 
once asserted his mission as a religious reformer, by driving 
out the dealers and the sacrificial beasts from the forecourt 
of the temple. He remained at Jerusalem for several days, 
preaching in one of the halls of the temple, and from time to 
time involved in controversial disputes. But at night he with- 
drew into a secret place of retreat, for he knew that his liberty 
and life were threatened. The authorities at Jerusalem, who 
regarded him as a false prophet, or dreaded the effect of his 
preaching upon public order, tried to get him into their 
power, but dared not lay hands on him by day for fear his 
followers should raise a tumult. But when he had eaten the 
Passover with his disciples on the evening of the fourteenth 
of Msan, one of them betrayed his place of refuge to the 
Sanhedrim. Under cover of the darkness he was seized, and 
was instantly tried and condemned as a blasphemer or her- 
etic. The law prescribed. stoning as the punishment of this 
offence, but the Roman governor, to whom application must 
be made for leave to carry out the sentence of death, took 
the affair into his own hands, and had Jesus crucified on the 
first day of the feast, upon a hill called Golgotha, outside the 
city walls. 



JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 15 

By sin.li a murderous issue was the richest of human lives 
brought to a hasty close. But Jesus had foreseen it and 
had not shrunk from it. It was needful to his cause. The 
future of his work was secured ; the kingdom of God was 
founded. In this conviction Jesus breathed his last, un- 
dergoing a fearful martydom. 



The execution of the Master was a crushing blow to the 
disciples. The}' had flattered themselves to the last with 
the belief that he whom the}' had reverenced as the Messiah 
would ascend the royal throne. And now that he was put to 
death as a malefactor, their faith for a moment gave way and 
they knew not what to think of him . They hastened back 
to Galilee, and there they slowly recovered from the shock. 
The Master's words came back to their minds, his image rose 
again before them, and under the influence of varied reminis- 
cences and impressions the belief in his Messiahship revived, 
and the disciples were convinced that he could not have re- 
mained in the land of shadows, but must have risen from the 
dark realms of the dead and been received for a time into 
heaven. And now they thought that he would soon return 
from heaven to earth to assume the Messiah's crown, which 
had been refused to him before by the obstinate want of faith 
of the people, and especially of their leaders and governors. 
So they returned to Jerusalem, and there appeared as wit- 
nesses to Jesus and as heralds of the kingdom of God which 
was now so close at hand. Their preaching gained a hear- 
ing. The scattered followers of Jesus rallied round them, 
and their numbers were increased by the adhesion of new 
members, among whom a Levite of the island of Cyprus — 
Barnabas by name — is mentioned with special honor. A 
small communuVy, distinguished by the brotherly love and 
mutual beneficence of its members, was established in the 
capital, and slowly but steadily increased. 

The authorities left them for the most part unmolested. 
Neither ecclesiastical nor social institutions had any thing to 
fear from them. The3 T made no disturbance, and what was 
more they remained absolutely true to the Jewish ideas of 
religious life, not only strictly abiding by the precepts of the 
Law, but distinguishing themselves by especial care and 
fidelity in the observances of religion and zeal in frequenting 



16 JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

the temple. They were not alone in looking forward witli 
longing expectation to the speedy coming of the Messiah, 
and the only point in which they differed from their fellow- 
citizens was their conviction that that Messiah was Jesus of 
Nazareth. They had evidently grasped but little of the spirit 
of the Master who had risen so high above the popular religion 
and assumed an attitude of such perfect freedom with regard 
to the observances of the Law. 

But in the community of Jesus, mockingly called after 
him " the sect of the Nazarenes," there were some who had 
comprehended more of his true principles. The difference 
of opinion was developed by the accession of foreign Jews, 
who had settled at Jerusalem, and certain proselytes ; for 
these classes were, as a rule, less narrow and prejudiced than 
the Palestinian Jews. A dispute in the bosom of the com- 
munity which had hitherto been so harmonious brought 
seven of these more liberal Nazarenes into prominence. One 
of them, whose name was Stephen, proclaimed that when 
Jesus returned from heaven as the Messiah the external 
precepts of the Law would be rescinded, and the service of 
the temple superseded by a purer form of worship. No 
sooner had this heretical idea been broached, than the storm 
before which Jesus had fallen broke out with renewed fury. 
The Apostles and their adherents were spared, for their Ju- 
daism was irreproachable ; but Stephen was stoned to death 
as a blasphemer, and his associates were persecuted and 
threatened with imprisonment, and had to save themselves 
by flight. 

A young Pharisee, of the name of Paul, distinguished 
himself by his zeal in this persecution. But before long a 
mighty change was wrought in the soul of this man. He 
could not shake off the impression which these heretics had 
made on him. His doubts were confirmed by reflection and 
research ; and since it was against his nature to do an} 7- thing 
by halves, he became a passionate adherent instead of a per- 
secutor of the new faith. First of all he withdrew for a 
considerable time into Arabia, chiefly to clear his own mind. 
It was there that he formed his special conception of Jesus, 
the Messiah, and of his death on the cross as the inaugura- 
tion of a new covenant between God and man, superseding 
the old covenant established on Mount Sinai. In this new 
covenant the Law was annulled, faith was the only condition 
of salvation, and the distinction between Jew and heathen 
was removed. On returning from Arabia, Paul appeared as 



JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 17 

a teacher at Damascus, was persecuted there, and narrowly 
escaped with his life. It was not till three years after his 
conversion that he went up to Jerusalem to spend some days 
with Peter. After this he preached in Syria and Cilicia, 
making Antioch his headquarters. 

Now at Antioch, the capital of Syria, a singular series of 
events had taken place. Certain members of the religious 
party represented by Stephen had taken refuge in this city, 
and had preached Jesus to the Greeks, that is, the heathens 
there. Such a thing had never been dreamed of hitherto by 
the followers of Jesus, for they believed that the Messiah and 
his kingdom belonged exclusively and entirely to the Jews. 
But the freer conceptions of these refugees enabled them to 
baptize, without scruple, any heathens who showed sufficient 
interest and faith in their preaching. Amid such surround- 
ings Paul began the labors and disciplined the powers that 
were to achieve such vast results. 



VI. 

So quickly and spontaneously had a division into two 
schools risen among the disciples of Jesus ! The points 
thej T had in common were the belief that Jesus was the Mes- 
siah, and the hope that he would soon return to establish his 
kingdom. In other respects they differed widely. The older 
section was distinguished by unshaken fidelity to the Mosaic 
law and the Jewish religion as a whole, and a firm conviction 
that the Messianic kingdom was for Israel alone, and that all 
heathens who had not in whole or in part passed over to the 
Jewish religion would be excluded from it as " unclean." The 
headquarters of this party were at Jerusalem, and all 
the communities which had risen from time to time in the 
land of the Jews belonged to it. The persecution in which 
Stephen lost his life had driven away all dissentients, and a 
considerable number of Pharisees having joined the com- 
munity, it was naturally confirmed in its strictly Jewish 
conceptions by the influence of its new adherents. The 
acknowledged leaders of this party were the Apostles, espe- 
cially Peter and John ; but even their influence was over- 
shadowed by that of James, the brother of Jesus, who was 
not one of the twelve. He regulated his life on the strictest 
Pharisaic, or almost Essenic, principles, and accordingly 
stood high in the estimation of the Jews of Jerusalem. 



18 JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

The other school, whose pioneer was Stephen, and which 
was first established at Antioch under Barnabas, Paul, and 
other preachers, held that the external rites of Judaism were 
no longer binding ; that heathens who turned from their 
nrythological fancies to faith in the one true God and in Jesus 
as the ruler of God's kingdom were as well entitled to share 
the salvation to come as though the} T had been Jews. Faith 
was the one thing needful. This school extended principally 
among the Greeks, but the community at Antioch included 
other Jewish members besides its founders and guides, all of 
whom had relinquished their religious and national preju- 
dices. These believers, who used the Greek word for Mes- 
siah, namely Christ, were called by their heathen fellow- 
citizens ^Christians;" and though the name was originally 
given bj r a misunderstanding and as a term of reproach, it 
was destined to survive as the name of the new religion. At 
first the mass of these Christians knew little or nothing of 
the difference of religious principle which separated them 
from the believers in Palestine, for they kept up no regular 
intercourse with Jerusalem. But as soon as the two schools, 
which we shall call the Jewish-Christian and the Heathen- 
Christian, came into contact with each other the}' must inevi- 
tably clash. 

The catastrophe was not long delayed, for certain rigid 
Jewish-Christians came from Judaea and greatly disturbed the 
congregation at Antioch by assuring them that when Christ 
returned from heaven he would not accept a heathen on the 
strength of his faith, unless he had been incorporated into 
Judaism by circumcision and conformity with the othei 
requirements of the Law. In support of this opinion they 
appealed to the Apostles as the only accredited witnesses ol 
what Jesus really intended ; and their teaching caused much 
uneasiness and dissension in the community at Antioch. 
Paul and Barnabas did their best to counteract the disturb- 
ing influences of this teaching, but found themselves unable 
to prevent or heal the dissensions it caused, and were finally 
compelled to go up to Jerusalem to consult the Apostles. 
They took Titus with them, a converted but uncircumcised 
heathen. At Jerusalem they specially sought out the heads 
of the community, — James, Peter, and John. These three, 
though they could not quite admit that faith was all-sufficient 
in itself, and that the heathen need not submit to the Law or 
even to its main injunctions, } T et recognized in the success of 
the Heathen-Christian mission a sign of God's approval, and 



JESUS ANT) THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 19 

^ave to Paul the right hand of fellowship. They determined 
not to oppose each other, but each to go his own way, — Paul 
and Barnabas to the Greeks, the Apostles of Jerusalem to 
the Jews. The only condition made was that a collection 
should be raised in the Heathen-Christian communities on 
behalf of the poor believers in Judaea. 

Soon after Paul and Barnabas had returned to Antioch 
they received a visit from Peter. At first he associated in a 
perfectly free and brotherly spirit with the Heathen-Chris- 
tians, but as soon as certain emissaries of James arrived at 
Antioch he suddenly reversed his line of conduct, separated 
himself from the believing heathens as though they were 
unclean, drew Barnabas and the other Jewish members of the 
congregation with him, and insisted on the Heathen-Chris- 
tians submitting to the requirements of the Law. Paul, who 
stood altogether alone, opposed Peter and the Jewish fanati- 
cism with all his might. He carried his point, but the gulf 
between the two parties was now wider than ever, — in fact 
impassable. t 

Not long afterwards Paul left Antioch, and, in company 
with Silas, Timotheus, and others, went on a missionary 
journe3 T through Asia Minor. He visited and confirmed the 
communities alread} r established, and founded many new 
ones, among which were some in the district of Galatia. 
After a time he passed over into Europe, and preached the 
Gospel at Philippi, Thessalonica, and elsewhere. He was 
almost every where persecuted and expelled, sometimes by 
heathens, but more frequently by Jews, till at last he settled 
for a time in Corinth, whence from time to time he visited 
various places in Achaia. After about a year and a half he 
was expelled from Corinth, and passed over to Ephesus, 
where he remained a considerable time, constantly making 
excursions through Asia Minor and to Macedonia and to 
Greece. He endured his manifold toils and difficulties, 
dangers and sufferings, with a zeal that nothing could daunt, 
and an unexampled energy. But his bitterest trial was the 
opposition he had to encounter from Jewish-Christians who 
came out from Judsea to stir up his heathen converts against 
him, and compel them to submit to the ordinances of the 
Law. The}' refused to recognize Paul as an Apostle, de- 
nounced his teachings as false doctrine, and even attacked 
his character. They succeeded but too well. In Galatia, at 
Corinth, and elsewhere the}' induced a great part of the 
Christians to fall away from him ; and he wrote letters from 



20 JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

Ephesus to Galatia and Corinth, intended chiefly to defend 
his personal character and his teaching, and to destroy the 
influence of his opponents, to whom he hardly yielded in bit- 
terness. 

In three years he had to leave Ephesus also. On this he 
passed through Macedonia, where he wrote his second letter 
to Corinth. Like its predecessor it was chiefly directed 
against the Jewish-Christian teachers, and soon afterwards 
he followed it to the capital of Achaia in person. Here he 
drew up his epistle to the Romans, in which he carefully 
expounded his doctrinal system. Meanwhile he had not 
forgotten his promise to make a collection for the believers 
at Jerusalem among the various communities he had estab- 
lished. Indeed, he had lately been making great efforts to 
collect a considerable sum of money, in the hope that this 
brotherly liberality on the part of the Heathen-Christians 
might close the breach between the two parties. Accord- 
ingly, he now set out from Corinth to the City of the Temple, 
taking the money he had collected with him. But when he 
reached Jerusalem his hopes were cruelly disappointed. In 
a tumult, stirred up against him by the Jews, he would have 
lost his life had not the commander of the Roman garrison 
interfered and snatched him out of the hands of the furious 
mob. To secure him from further danger he was sent under 
an armed escort to Csesarea, where he was kept in confine- 
ment by the governor for two years ; after which, fearing that 
he might be given up to the Jews, he availed himself of his 
privilege as a Roman citizen, and claimed to have his case 
investigated before the imperial court at Rome. On his jour- 
ney he suffered shipwreck, but eventually reached Rome in 
safety. In the course of the two years that he spent in cap- 
tivity at Rome he wrote a few more letters, among which 
are those to Philemon and to the Philippians, and was able 
in other wa} T s to cany on his work to some extent. Even 
here, however, he was constantly thwarted by the Jews and 
the Jewish-Christians, until at last he closed his career by 
a martyr's death. 

Paul was a great man, — perhaps the greatest of all men 
except Jesus. At any rate, Christianity has to thank him 
more than any other for its existence. lie was a restless 
worker, a dauntless champion of the principles he adopted, 
a bold and deep thinker. His lot was any thing but enviable. 
Bitterly hated, constantly and fiercely opposed b} T his antag- 
onists, he was but little comprehended by his followers. 



JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 21 

Hence his own converts were frequently unfaithful to his 
ideas and principles. While he was still living, the congre- 
gations at Antioch, in Galatia, and at Corinth among 
others fell away from him in great part, and went over to 
the Jewish-Christian party, and not long after his death the 
congregations at Ephesus and elsewhere followed the exam- 
ple. There was no lack of kindred spirits to take up his 
work and preach his gospel zealously enough, but the oppo- 
sition to his school also continued after his death. Even his 
personal character was not spared when he was no more, but 
was pursued with obloqu} 7 and slander. Almost a century 
after his death a romance written against him was circulated 
in the community at Rome. 

Meanwhile the course of events had necessarily changed 
the attitude of the two parties. As the number of Heathen- 
Christians continually increased it became impossible any 
longer to question their right of citizenship in the Messianic 
kingdom, even without their passing over to Judaism. So 
the Jewish-Christians no longer required them to submit to 
circumcision and to all the regulations of the Mosaic Law. It 
had gradually become impossible to maintain such demands, 
and accordingly they were dropped, and the number of com- 
mandments which the Heathen-Christians were required to 
observe was reduced. And again, the devastation of the 
very centre of Jewish worship in a.d. 70 put an end to the 
sacrificial service and to many other sacred rites, and conse- 
quently man}- of the points of dispute between the two 
schools of Christians lost all practical interest. But the con- 
flict over the principle itself, — whether faith alone was the 
indispensable condition of salvation, or whether it must be 
accompanied by the observance of certain forms and obe- 
dience to an external law, — was still as hot as ever. The 
Heathen-Christians on their side, with the exception of some 
few extravagant Paulinists, could not deny the authority of 
the Apostles and the connection of their own religion with 
that of the Jews ; and, especially when Paul was no longei 
on the stage, they showed a readiness to yield in some points, 
and insisted less vehemently on their liberty. Moreover 
there soon sprang up a middle part}', which endeavored to 
bring about a reconciliation between the two sides b} r yielding 
womething on either hand. 

As is generally the case, the efforts of the middle party 
were to a certain extent successful. The struggle of the 
Apostolic age ended in union under the Universal (Catholic) 



22 JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

Church, in which all traces of the former divisions were, as 
far as possible, obliterated or disguised. This Catholic 
Church called itself after both Peter and Paul, though giv- 
ing the higher rank to the former. It excluded from its com- 
munion as heretics both the Jewish-Christians who persisted 
in reviling Paul and maintaining the Law in its integrity 
(Ebionites) and the Heathen-Christians who opposed the 
principle of the Law and rejected the authority of the Anos- 
tles of Jerusalem (Marcionites) . 



VII. 

The difference of principle among the earliest disciples of 
Jesus stamped itself more or less distinctly upon the old 
Christian literature, and was indeed one of the great motive 
powers in its production. We possess most of this literature 
in the New Testament, though some compositions, such as 
one or more letters of Paul to Corinth, a gospel of the 
Hebrews, and other's writings have been lost. We also 
possess a few more documents which may be regarded as 
belonging to the old Christian literature. They are gen- 
erally called the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, One of 
them is a letter from Clement to the Corinthians, and another 
is a letter written under the name of Barnabas. But these 
are more recent than almost any of the books of the New 
Testament. 

To the books of the New Testament, then, we must now 
turn our special attention. Some of them, especially the 
oldest, plunge us into the midst of the conflict between the 
two parties. Of Paul's letters to Galatia, to Corinth, and to 
Rome we have already spoken. One of the writings of the 
opposite party is the book of Revelation, which was written 
in a.d. 68, or January, 69, a few years after the death of 
Paul. It attacks his character, but still more his doctrine, 
and brands his followers as servants of Satan. We learn 
from it the exact position of the rigid Jewish-Christians at a 
time when the great majority of the faithful was composed of 
converted heathens. The Messiah and his kingdom belong 
to Israel, and Jerusalem will be the chief seat of the king- 
dom of God. The heathen, in order to participate in it, 
must first be incorporated into Israel, and even then they 
will occup3 7 a lower position than that of the true descend- 
ants of Abraham, — just as in former times the proselytes had 



JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 23 

never been regarded as on the same footing with the Jews 
themselves. The epistle of James is of later date, and 
though it is also from the hand of a Jewish-Christian it 
breathes a far gentler and freer spirit than that of Revela- 
tion. It holds that the Jewish ceremonies are annulled, and 
admits the heathen without conditions ; but for all that it is 
directly and designedly aimed against the doctrine of Paul. 
On the other hand, certain writings intended to bring about 
a reconciliation were issued b} T the friends of Paul. Among 
these are the epistle to the Hebrews and the book of Act3. 
Others again involuntarily remind us of the divisions that 
had formerly prevailed or still existed, and so give us a 
glimpse into the state of feeling and belief in the circles 
from which the} T emanated ; while the latest books transplant 
us into a changed condition of the community and into later 
ecclesiastical disputes. 

In dealing with these questions we must never forget that 
the majority of the writings of the New Testament were not 
really written or published by those whose names they bear. 
For instance, fourteen epistles are said to be Paul's ; but we 
must at once strike off one, namely that to the Hebrews, 
which does not bear his name at all, and therefore does not 
even profess to have come from his hand. The other thir- 
teen are all of them intended to pass for his ; but in one of 
them we are distinctly informed (2 Thessaionians, ii. 2) that 
even during his lifetime letters of which he had not written 
a word were published under his name. In those days peo- 
ple saw no harm in such literary frauds, though they would 
now be considered highly culpable, and even criminal. The 
ancient historians were much in the habit of introducing 
celebrated personages as actually saying what they imagined 
would have been appropriate for them to say under the 
special circumstances ; and in the same way it was con- 
sidered quite permissible for a man to put out letters under 
the name of another, and thus to bring his own ideas before 
the world under the protection of an honored sponsor. Thus 
the two letters to Timothy, and the letter to Titus, were 
certainly composed long after the death of Paul, though 
perhaps the second to Timothy contains a few verses that 
are actually from the hand of the Apostle. It is more than 
probable that the letters to the Ephesians and Colossians 
are also unauthentic, and the same suspicion rests, perhaps on 
the first, but certainly on the second of the epistles to the 
Thessaionians 



24 JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

These remarks are equally applicable to the seven General 
or Catholic epistles, so called because the} 7 were accepted by 
the Catholic Church. The first and last, which are Jewish- 
Christian in character, are incorrectly ascribed to James and 
Judas, the brothers of Jesus. The first epistle of Peter was 
not written by the Apostle whose name it bears, but by a 
disciple of Paul ; and the second, which is perhaps the latest 
book in the Bible, was not written till about the middle of 
the second century after Christ. The writer attempts to rea- 
son with the grievous disappointment of the Christians at 
the continued delay of the return of Jesus from heaven ; an 
event which even the Apostles and their contemporaries had 
eagerly expected, and which the writer of the Revelation, 
two years before the destruction of Jerusalem, had painted 
in glowing colors and declared to be close at hand. Finally, 
of the three epistles of John the first is not an epistle at all, 
and does not bear any name, while the other two profess to 
be the work of an elder whose name is not given. All of 
them place us in a later age and amid other controversies 
than those of which we have spoken above. 

But our interest is more especially excited b} T the five his- 
torical books of the New Testament. If we might really 
suppose them to have been written by the men whose names 
they bear, we could never be thankful enough for such 
precious authorities at first and second hand, and should 
not hesitate to accept their narratives in the main as sub- 
stantially correct. For John and Matthew were Apostles of 
Jesus, and the former, together with his brother James and 
with Peter, was admitted into his Master's especial confi- 
dence. As to Mark, we are told that he lived at Jerusalem, 
that he was a cousin of Barnabas, a fellow-traveller and 
friend of Paul, and afterwards a companion and beloved 
disciple of Peter. Luke is supposed to have been a friend 
and disciple of Paul, to have accompanied him on most of 
his journeys, and to have been with him during his last stay 
at Jerusalem and his imprisonment. Who could be better 
informed as to the fates of Jesus and the Apostles than 
these eye-witnesses and their close and intimate friends? 

But, alas ! not one of these five books was really written 
by the person whose name it bears, — though for the sake of 
brevit} r we shall still call the writers Matthew, Mark, Luke, 
and John, — and the} T are all of more recent date than their 
headings would lead us to suppose. The case is not quite 
the same, however, as with the epistles sent into the world 



JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 25 

under the names of Paul, Peter, James, and Judas. We 
cannot say that the Gospels and the book of Acts are unau- 
thentic, for not one of them professes to give the name of its 
author. They appeared anonymously. The titles placed 
above them in our bibles owe their origin to a later ecclesias- 
tical tradition which deserves no confidence whatever. 

So in order to know how far we can safely rely upon their 
statements and what use we can make of them, we must look 
at the contents of the books themselves. Let us begin by 
examining the Acts of the Apostles. We notice at once that 
the name is very inappropriate, for the book does not speak 
of the actions of all the twelve or thirteen Apostles, or even 
of most of them, but is divided into two parts, the first and 
smaller of which is chiefly concerned with Peter and the 
other exclusively with Paul. But we need not insist on this. 
For the history of these two men, in whom we feel so deep 
an interest, it is almost our only authority ; and of the earli- 
est fortunes of the community of Jesus, the primitive history 
of the Christian Church and the whole of the apostolic age, 
we should know as good as nothing if we had not the book 
of Acts. If only we could trust the writer fully! But we 
soon see that the utmost caution is necessary. For we have 
another account of some of the things about which this writer 
tells us, — an account written by the veiy man to whom they 
refer, the best possible authority, therefore, as to what really 
took place. This man is Paul himself. In the first two 
chapters of the epistle to the Galatians lie gives us several 
details of his own past life ; and no sooner do we place his 
stor}' side by side with that of the Acts than we clearly per- 
ceive that this book contains an incorrect account, and that 
its inaccuracy is not the result of accident or ignorance but 
of a deliberate design, an attempt — conceived no doubt with 
the best intentions — to hide in some degree the actual course 
of events. In short, it attempts to conceal Paul's relations 
with the other Apostles and the differences of opinion that 
existed in the early Church. This real discover}' gives us the 
key to the character and purpose of the whole book of Acts. 
For now that we have in one instance detected its tendency 
to represent the relations between Paul and the Twelve as 
more favorable than they really were, and to hide the differ- 
ences of opinion among the early Christians as completely as 
possible, we soon perceive the same desire running through 
all the book. The real state of things in these early times is 
disguised almost past recognition. In order to reconcile 

VOL. III. 2 



26 JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

Paul's enemies to him, and to establish peace between the 
two parties, the sharp corners are considerably rounded off 
whenever the great and striking figure of the apost'e of the 
heathens is introduced. At the same time, Peter and James 
are made more liberal. Indeed, Peter is the first to preach 
the gospel to the heathen, and on several occasions Paul is 
represented in the character of a strict Jewish-Christian. 
In a word, all traces of the dispute are as far as possible 
obliterated. 

This puts us into a position to determine the origin and 
the historical value of the book of Acts. The writer was 
evidently a Heathen-Christian who revered the memory of 
Paul, though he never really understood his doctrine, and 
had surrendered most of his principles. At the same time 
he may be regarded as in a certain sense a forerunner (or 
an early representative) of the primitive Catholic Church. 
We know how to deal with him therefore. When, in spite 
of himself, he allows an involuntary betrayal of the existence 
of these dissensions to leak out, or when his subject is in no 
wa} r connected with these quarrels, and he had means of in- 
vestigating it fully, then we may not only hail him as a valu- 
able witness, in the absence of all other informants, but may 
even accept his statements as deserving of all credit ; not 
indeed as regards the speeches which he puts into the mouths 
of Paul and others, but as regards the events which he re- 
cords. This is especially applicable to the later fortunes of 
Paul, as to which the writer of Acts had access to some very 
good authorities, the best of all being the itinerary or journal 
of travels composed by one of the Apostle's companions. 
Portions of this work he took up almost unaltered into his 
own. In this itinerar}^ then, we possess the records of an 
e} T e- witness. This is of incalculable value. Paul himself 
and this unknown companion of his journej's are the only 
eye-witnesses from whom we have any records in the New 
Testament that have not been disturbed by later traditions. 

And, alas ! this later tradition is such a turbid fountain ! 



JESUS ANT> THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 27 



VIII. 

The truth of this complaint becomes only too clear when 
we turn to our Gospels. 

Of course we should rejoice still more in an accurate 
knowledge of the life of Jesus than in a faithful history of 
the apostolic age. And for this knowledge we have hardly 
any sources but the four books with which the New Testa- 
ment begins. No other authorities deserve to be mentioned 
by their side. Paul gives us a few general characteristics, 
and makes a few allusions in his letters, but this is all. He 
had never known Jesus personalty. Flavius Josephus, the 
well-known historian of the Jewish people, was born in 
a.d. 37, only two 3'ears after the death of Jesus ; but though 
his work is of inestimable value as our chief authority for the 
circumstances of the times in which Jesus and his Apostles 
came forward, }~et he does not seem to have ever mentioned 
Jesus himself. At anj- rate, the passage in his " Jewish An- 
tiquities " * that refers to him is certainly spurious, and was 
inserted by a later and a Christian hand. The Talmud 2 
compresses the history of Jesus into a single sentence, and 
later Jewish writers concoct mere slanderous anecdotes. 
The ecclesiastical Fathers mention a few sajings or events, 
the knowledge of which they drew from oral tradition or 
from writings that have since been lost. The Latin and 
Greek historians just mention his name. This meagre har- 
vest is all we reap from sources outside the Gospels. 

We must be content with the Gospels, then. To learn how 
far we may trust them we must in the first place compare 
them with each other. The moment we do so we notice that 
the fourth stands quite alone, while the first three form a single 
group, not only following the same general course, but some- 
times even showing a verbal agreement which cannot possibly 
be accidental. For this reason they are called the synoptical 
Gospels ; that is to say, the Gospels which contain accounts 
of the same events — kt parallel passages," as they are called 
— which can be written side by side so as to enable us to take 
a general view or synopsis of all the three, and at the same 
time compare them with each other. A more careful exami- 
nation shows us that the difference between Matthew, Mark, 
and Luke on the one hand and John on the other is so 
great that we must choose between them, since we cannot 
1 B. xviii. chap. iii. sec. 3. 2 See vol. i. p. 31, 32. 



28 JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

possibly harmonize them. According to the first three Jesua 
utters his wisdom in the form of proverbs, or still more fre- 
quently of parables. In John the parables disappear entirely, 
and profound and elaborate disquisitions are put into the 
mouth of Jesus. In the first three Gospels his words usually 
refei to the kingdom of God, in the fourth he almost always 
speaks of himself. In the former he is said to have lived 
and preached in Galilee alone till within a few da}-s of his 
death ; in the latter we find him frequently, nay generally, 
working in Judaea, and especially at Jerusalem. In the 
former he speaks and acts as an Israelite ; in the latter 
he sometimes separates himself so sharply from the people 
of Israel that he seems to wish no longer to be consid- 
ered as belonging to the nation at all. In the former he is 
a man whose character gradually develops under the conflict 
in which he is engaged and the work he has taken up ; in 
the latter a more than earthly being, perfect from the very 
beginning. In a word, John gives us a totally different im- 
pression both of the whole and of the separate details from 
that conveyed by the Synoptics. 

Attempts to remove this contradiction have been vain. 
Every means adopted to this end has turned out a mere idle 
subtlety. There is no escaping the fact that we must make 
our choice. Nor can we hesitate as to what that choice shall 
be. The first three Gospels are far simpler and more natu- 
ral in tone than the fourth ; the}' bring the historical back- 
ground of the fife of Jesus far more clearly before us ; they are 
written with the object of making his person and his preach- 
ing, his deeds and his fortunes, known. In the fourth Gos- 
pel John the Baptist, Jesus, and the Evangelist himself always 
speak in the same spirit and adopt the same st}de ; so that 
any one can see that it is really the Evangelist who is speak- 
ing all the time, and that he simply puts his own ideas, 
clothed in his own style, into the mouths of Jesus and others. 
The view here taken of the world and man is utterly foreign 
to the mind of Jesus, and its point of departure Must be 
looked for in the Alexandrine philosoph}'. Lastly, the writer 
himself clearly indicates at the end of his book that his object 
was not so much to give an account of the life of Jesus as to 
rouse and strengthen faith in him. His work is an expression 
of faith rather than a historical narrative. In other words, 
he does not tell us what Jesus was, but what he, the Evange- 
list, had found in him, — what Jesus was to him, what influence 
he had exercised upon his spiritual life, and in what light he 



JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 29 

therefore regarded him. If we also bear in mind that this 
author wrote at a comparatively late period, in the first half 
of the second century, we shall readily assent to the following 
conclusion : We may read the fourth Gospel for our edili- 
cation ; indeed, there is perhaps no other book of the Bible 
more eminently suited to this purpose. As we read it we feel 
compelled to ask ourselves whether we too have derived as 
much spiritual wealth from Jesus as this writer, with his deep 
piet}' and high culture, did. But for the history of Jesus we 
cannot use the work ; we need never consult it, and shall do 
best to put it entirely out of our minds. In treating of the 
life of Jesus, then, we shall set this work almost entirely aside, 
and shall afterwards take it up separately as the most beau- 
tiful expression of faith which has come down to us from the 
post-apostolic age ; but even then we shall not stop to inquire 
particularly whether any historical fact here and there lies at 
the basis of its representations. 

The fourth Gospel forms a beautiful and well-ordered whole, 
and bears a pre-eminently individual character, for the very 
remarkable and exalted personality' of the writer has stamped 
its spirit unmistakably upon ever)' portion of the work. But 
it is far otherwise with the Synoptic Gospels. They can 
hardly be said to have had authors at all. They had only 
editors or compilers. What I mean is, that those who enriched 
the old Christian literature with these Gospels did not go to 
work as independent writers and compose their own narra- 
tives out of the accounts they had collected, but simply took 
up the different stories or sets of stories which the}' found cur- 
rent in the oral tradition or already reduced to writing, add- 
ing here and expanding there, and so sent out into the world 
a very artless kind of composition. Their works were then, 
from time to time, somewhat enriched b} T introductory matter 
or interpolations from the hands of later Christians, and per- 
haps were modified a little here and there. Our first two 
Gospels appear to have passed through more than one such 
revision. The third, whose writer sa}'s in his preface that 
1 ' many had undertaken to put together a narrative (Gospel) " 
before him, appears to proceed from a single collecting, ar- 
ranging, and modifying hand. 

I spoke just now of oral tradition as having preceded any 
written record. For a considerable period this tradition was 
the only source of information as to the fortunes and the 
teaching of Jesus. It was but natural that as long as Jesua 



30 JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

was living no one should think of writing an account of his 
words or deeds. And even during the first twenty or thirty 
years or so after his death, when his disciples were preaching 
him as the Christ to an ever wider circle, though the want 
of such Gospels must soon have made itself generally felt, 
no one undertook to write one. For the Christians expected 
Jesus himself to return ere long from heaven, and what 
would then be the use of a written record of his former 
life? 

It was not till the expectation of the return of Jesus had 
fallen somewhat into the background that such a task could 
be taken up with affectionate zeal. And meanwhile the oral 
tradition had already taken a tolerably settled form in the 
various circles of Christians. In an age when reading and 
writing were less common than they are at present, the 
memory was much more tenacious, and words were remem- 
bered with greater accuracy. Detached accounts as well as 
whole sets of narratives referring to the labors of Jesus in 
G-alilee, his journey to Jerusalem, his sta}' in the city, and 
his death, were current among the Christians. His para- 
bles, his aphorisms, and his more elaborate discourses were 
also passed from mouth to mouth, sometimes in connection 
with some event, and sometimes quite detached. One of the 
early Fathers tells us that the Apostle Matthew wrote a col- 
lection of "Sayings of the Lord," in Hebrew, by which he 
means the local dialect which Jesus and his Apostles spoke. 
This collection has probably been taken up into our first Gos- 
pel, which is specialty rich in sayings of Jesus ; and it may 
be from this fact that it derives its title ' ' according to 
Matthew." 

Of course, the preservation and promulgation of the sa}'- 
ings and doings of Jesus by oral tradition for so long a period 
was attended with certain disadvantages. No doubt the tra- 
dition was much firmer than would be the case in our da}', 
but still it was constantly subject to variation. The result is 
very clearly discernible in our Gospels. There are four prin- 
cipal causes of these transformations of the tradition, which 
were generally unintentional. 

In the first place, embellishment was a necessary result of 
oral promulgation. This will always follow when a story 
passes from mouth to mouth, especially when it refers to 
any one for whom a great enthusiasm is felt. One narrator 
adds a little to it, and the next heightens the coloring some- 
what 



JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 31 

In the second place, misunderstandings may pla} r an impor- 
tant part in changing the form of a tradition. Examples of 
this process abound. The metaphorical language of the East, 
in which Jesus usually expressed himself, and which his first 
disciples sometimes used concerning him, was specialty liable 
to misconception. It was accepted literally, and thus a fig- 
ure of speech, or even a parable, was reported as if it were 
an actual event. 

Another souroe of misconception may be found in the pre- 
conceived ideas, especially of a religious character, which exer- 
cised so powerful an influence over the tradition from its very 
origin. The hearers of Jesus, even his Apostles, had very 
often failed to understand what their Master said, what he 
did, and what he was aiming at. In their own preaching 
they reproduced their Master and his teaching not as they 
really were, but as they had appeared in the light of their 
own preconceived ideas. And so in after times the original 
tradition, itself far from pure, was considerably, though un- 
intentionally, modified by such influences as love of the 
marvellous, the national pride of the Jews, current ideas as 
to the Messiah and the person of Jesus, and the expectation 
that he would return to earth. 

Closely connected with this last source of error, and most 
important of all, is the influence exercised upon the tradition 
by the conflict of parties in the apostolic communities. Each 
of the two schools of this period, so sharply opposed to each 
other (the Jewish-Christian and the Heathen-Christian) , was 
filled by a deep and sacred conviction that it and it only 
thought, spoke, and acted in the spirit of the Master whom 
both acknowledged. Hence it happened that the two parties 
might report one and the same saying of Jesus so differently 
that each of them regarded it as passing a sentence of con- 
demnation upon the other. As a rule, this came to pass 
involuntarily; but, in the very strength of their conviction, 
the advocates of either view might now and then expressly 
put such a sentence into the Master's mouth, or in case of 
need invent some incident in order to bring clearly into view 
what they were certain must have been his judgment. In 
the Synoptic Gospels, accordingly, we find certain narratives 
which refer to Jesus in appearance only, and really rose in 
the apostolic communities in consequence of the division in 
their midst, or with direct reference to it. A great deal then 
depends upon whether the tradition had been promulgated 
through a Jewish-Christian or a Heathen-Christian medium, 



32 JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 

and each Evangelist was guided in the choice of his materials 
by the school to which he himself belonged. The authorities 
of the first Evangelist were chiefly Jewish-Christian ; the 
third Evangelist derived his information more from Pauline 
circles. More than once we shall encounter narratives 
that cannot possibly be understood in connection with the 
life of Jesus, and shall transfer them to the period to 
which the}* realty belong ; that is to sa}*, to the history of the 
Apostles. 

But enough. We have seen distinctly that even when 
dealing with the first three Gospels we must go to work with 
the utmost caution, must closely examine, minutely compare, 
and carefully sift their statements, if we are really to gain 
an}- genuine knowledge of Jesus and learn his true histoiy. 
All this is very difficult, and there are many points about 
which we long to know the truth, but as to which our utmost 
efforts can secure no certain knowledge. When we place 
Matthew, Mark, and Luke side by side, we sometimes suc- 
ceed in recovering the most ancient form of a narrative or 
saying ; sometimes we are surprised to find that the Evange- 
lists themselves, from the very fact of their going to work so 
artlessly and simply, and introducing most of their altera- 
tions without exactly intending it, emend and refute them- 
selves, and so put us upon the right track ; sometimes our 
knowledge of the apostolic age throws a clear light upon the 
origin and significance of what we read in the Gospels. But 
in spite of all this, we have constantly to express our regret- 
ful ignorance of the true histoiy of the life of Jesus. All the 
stories of the New Testament, without exception, will be dealt 
with and explained as we go along, and we shall try to bring 
out both the beautiful and true and the one-sided or untrue 
ideas which they contain ; even legends * may furnish mate- 
rials for history, as contributions to our knowledge of the 
times and the surroundings out of which the} 7 rose. But, 
after all, our chief concern is with Jesus. In any case, we 
shall bear enough of him to be filled with the deepest admira- 
tion and reverence for his character, to love him in our inmost 
hearts, and to feel ourselves unspeakably indebted to him. 
And if we discover that his first disciples generally misunder- 
stood him, and could never fully appreciate a character to the 
true greatness of which they were so often blind, we shall 
lament the fact itself, but shall know how to make use of our 
knowledge of it. The truth revealed b} r Jesus can never be 

1 See vol. i. pp. 6-8. 



JESUS AND THE APOSTOLIC AGE. 33 

quite obscured. It has been, and still is, the very life of 
Christianity. If we listen faithfully to its commands, and 
open our hearts to its influence, it can and will so strengthen 
us in all that is good and noble that we shall bring no shame 
upon the name of Christian which we take from Jesus ; it will 
so build up our character and confirm our moral power that 
we shall learn, rejoicing in the love of God, to be a true 
blessing to society, and ever to grow more and more like 
Jesus. No richer blessing can I wish to } T ou, my readers ! 



Book I. 

JESUS. 



Chapter I. 

THE DESCENT OF JESUS. 

Matthew I. ; Luke III. 23-38. 

U TDEDIGREE of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of 

jL Abraham." 

Such are the words which stand at the head of the first 
page of the New Testament. There could not be a more 
natural commencement ; for however wearisome a dry list of 
names may seem, we can easily understand that the early 
Christians were anxious to trace the descent of Jesus, as 
fully as possible, up into a hoaiT antiquit} 7 . Some people still 
keep up their family registers, and attach great value to them ; 
and it is not unusual to set aside for the purpose the blank 
pages at the beginning of the great family Bible, which 
descends as an heirloom from father to son, and is alwa}*s so 
carefully preserved and honored. But never, perhaps, has 
the passion for preserving pedigrees been so great as among 
the Jews after the Capt^'vit}' ; for the} r jealously defended the 
purity of their Israelitish descent, and deemed it of the utmost 
consequence to be able to furnish proof that not a drop of blood 
polluted b} T heathen affinities flowed through their veins. 

But to return to the genealogy of Jesus. A careful exami- 
nation brings to light several objections to its authenticity. 
To begin with, as soon as we read through the first chapter 
of Matthew we come upon an extraordinary contradiction. 
First of all we have three series of ancestors, of fourteen gen- 
erations each — we may check the calculation for ourselves — 
the last of them ending Jacob, Joseph, Jesus. Well and 



36 DESCENT OP JEStTS. 

good ! Bui in the following verses we are all at on v e in- 
formed that Joseph was not the father of Jesus after all, and 
that Jnsus had realty no connection with him. Then what is 
the meaning of this list of Joseph's ancestors with the heading, 
" Pedigree of Jesus" ? for all the while, according to this sec- 
ond account, it has nothing whatever to do with Jesus. You 
will see at once that there is a direct contradiction here. But 
again, in the Gospel of Luke there is another pedigree of 
Jesus, or rather of Joseph the father of Jesus, but it only 
agrees with that of Matthew in fifteen names, and departs 
from it in no less than forVy ! Continuing our examination, 
and inspecting the stories about the birth of Jesus which our 
first and third Evangelists have given us, we very soon per- 
ceive that the} T are in irreconcilable contradiction with each 
other, and that each of them taken b}^ itself contains much 
that is strange and improbable, not to say impossible. 

Now any one who has studied general histoiy, especially 
that of antiquity, will at once remember that the origin of 
great men is often veiled in obscurity. If a later tradition 
encircles their cradle with a crown of legendary glory, it does 
so simply by the exercise of its own imagination ; for trust- 
worthy sources of information for the heroes' lives do not 
begin to flow before their public appearance. All that pre- 
cedes is mere fiction. We need not wonder, then, that the 
case is similar with Jesus, who has been revered throughout 
the ages as the greatest of all men, as the chief benefactor 
of our race ; nay, as something more than man. And the 
perfect simplicity and absence of ostentation or display which 
always characterized Jesus makes it seem all the more 
natural that no record of his early life should have survived. 
The question is, then, are we to look upon these registers 
and stories as true history, or simply as at once the evidence 
and the result of the reverence, the faith, and the grateful 
love of the Christians ? 

The answer cannot be doubtful. We know hardly any 
thing of the origin, the childhood, and the youth of Jesus. 
Since he is the greatest hero not only of Biblical but of uni- 
versal histor} r , and occupies the place of honor in the story 
of the moral and religious development of each one of us, 
every thing that concerns him must arouse our keenest in- 
terest, and we cannot help searching for information even on 
these preliminary matters ; but if we expect any great result 
we shall be bitierly disappointed. Wherever we knock, the 
door is closed against us. Inasmuch as Jesus begins a new 



DESCENT OF JESUS. 37 

period of human progress we have begun a new chronological 
era with him, and are in the habit of reckoning the years 
backward and forward from his birth ; but even the point 
from which this era should commence is any thing but certain. 
In the 3"ear 525 a.d. the Roman Abbot Dioirysius Exiguus 
fixed it as it is now used, but students of the subject have 
long been agreed that the data upon which he based his cal- 
culations were insufficient, and that he most likely made a 
mistake* of several years. Nor is our knowledge any more 
definite with regard to the descent of Jesus, and the circum- 
stances of his birth. Even as to the place where he was born, 
opinions differ. 

You may naturally ask the cause of all this uncertainty, 
and it is not difficult to explain. The fact is that the Apostles 
and other preachers, who brought the gospel to Jews and 
heathens, confined themselves entirely, in speaking about 
Jesus, to the time of his public activit} 7 in Israel, and laid 
special stress upon his death and resurrection. To this the}' 
could bear witness. Of what went before they had seen 
nothing, nor had they made any inquiries about it ; for at first 
it was only the most important facts that excited attention. 
In these early times no special interest was felt in the birth 
and youth of Jesus, for his disciples tacitly assumed that 
it was not as an infant, a boy, or a } T oung man, but as a pub- 
lic teacher, and above all in his death, that Jesus had shown 
himself to be the Christ and our redeemer. 

And when the later Christians wished to know more of 
these early days, there was no one left who could give them 
any information. Were they content to rest in their igno- 
rance then, inasmuch as it was impossible to learn airy more, 
and fate would have it so? Not at all. It was far more in 
the spirit of the age to try to determine what must have hap- 
pened. And indeed the Christians firmly believed that they 
could draw from a source of information which deserved such 
implicit confidence that even if there had been persons living 
who were personally acquainted with the facts, it would hardly 
have been necessary to consult them. This source of infor- 
mation was the Old Testament. Jesus was recognized as .he 
Messiah promised to the fathers ; and the prophets had written 
about the Messiah. It was firmly believed that they had fore- 
told a number of details of the life of the Christ, and that in 
doing so the} 7 could not possibly have made mistakes. Not 
content with finding in the prophecies and Psalms all sorts of 
allusions or definite predictions as to the life of Jesus, the 



38 DESCENT OF JESUS. 

Christians saw in the fortunes of the people of Israel or of its 
greatest heroes, such as Moses, a foreshadowing of what was 
to happen to the Messiah. And so by putting together- a 
number of texts from the Old Testament, generally explained 
in a grossly arbitrary style, they made up a complete history 
of Jesus. We shall notice this again and again as we ad- 
vance. We can now understand the way in which they would 
attempt to fill the great gap in the history of the early } T ears 
of Jesus, aivl can make use of our knowledge at once in 
explaining the origin of these two pedigrees and other things 
connected with them. 

The narratives of the Old Testament have familiarized us 
with the Messianic expectation. Several of the prophets 1 
distinctly say that in the golden age of the future, for which 
they hope, a descendant of David will hold sway over Israel 
as king. Now Jesus had not yet become a king ; but, 
thought the Christians, he would be one ere long when he re- 
turned from heaven. Was he really of the race of David 
then ? The simple fact is that we know nothing about it ; 
and perhaps you may think that it does not much matter. 
No more it does. To us, at least, he is neither greater nor 
less for being or not being a descendant of David. We 
honor him far too much to attach an} T value to such an 
accident. Jesus himself, too, considered it a matter of little 
or no consequence, and perhaps indirectly denied that his 
descent was royal. 2 But the early Christians thought other- 
wise. The} T argued : Jesus is the Christ, and therefore it is 
absolutely certain, on the testimon} T of all those prophetic 
utterances, that he must have been of the race and family of 
David. 3 This argument necessarily involved the belief that 
the great-nephews of Jesus, the grandsons of his brother 
Jude, were also descendants of David ; and an old church- 
Father tells us that the suspicious Emperor Domitian, hearing 
that in the country of the Jews there were men of roj'al 
extraction still alive, had these relatives of Jesus brought 
before him ; but the sight of their hands hardened by honest 
work allayed his fears. 

The general statement that Jesus must have been a son of 

1 Isaiah xi. 1, 10 ; Jeremiah xxiii. 5, xxx. 9, xxxiii. 15, 17, 21, 22 ; Ezekiel 
xxxiv. 23 f., xxxvii. 24 f. ; Hosea iii. 5; Amos ix. 11 ; Michah v. 2; Zechariah 
iii. 8, vi. 12, xii. 8. 

2 Matthew xxii. 41-46 (Mark xii. 35-37). 

8 John vii. 42; Acts ii. 30, xiii. 23; Romans i. 2, 3; 2 Tim. ii. 8: Hebrew! 
vii. 14; Revelation v. 5. xxii. 16. 



DESCENT OF JESUS. 39 

David did not long satisfy the Christians ; and by the aid of 
names and catalogues from the Old Testament they construct- 
ed pedigrees for Joseph , the father of Jesus . We have already 
alluded to the two which Matthew and Luke have preserved 
for us. The first begins with Abraham ; the other goes back 
to Adam. These pedigrees have not the smallest historical 
value. Only to mention a single point, their authors did not 
shrink from the most arbitral handling of their materials foi 
the sake of obtaining s}-mmetrical results with special refer- 
ence to the sacred number seven and its multiples. (3X14 
in one case and 5 X 14 -)- 7 in the other.) Moreover, these 
two registers destro}' each other. Not only do the names 
differ in almost eveiy case, but in the one there are exactly 
fourteen generations more between Jesus and David than in 
the other. But it does not follow that the}^ have no interest 
for us. In the first place, the} T offer a striking illustration of 
the way in which histoiy was written in those days. Again, 
on comparing the two, we see the different spirit in which the 
two compilers worked. The first list, which only mounts up 
to Abraham the ancestor of Israel, intends to represent Jesus 
distinctly as Israels Messiah, and must therefore have ariser. 
in Jewish-Christian circles. The other, which goes up tc 
" Adam the son of God," the ancestor of all mankind, wishes 
to show that Jesus belongs to the whole human race, and is 
"the second Adam," 1 the true man, and the son of God. 
This list, therefore, must be of Heathen-Christian origin, 
or rather must have passed through a revision made in the 
Heathen-Christian spirit. Finally, it follows of necessity 
from both the genealogies that their compilers entertained no 
doubt that Joseph was the father of Jesus. Otherwise the 
descent of Joseph would not have been in the least to the 
point. 

Connected with this firm belief that the Messiah must be a 
descendant of David was the conviction that as David's son 
he must be born in David's city, that is Bethlehem. This 
was deduced from a passage in Michah, which was understood 
to mean "at Bethlehem, in Judsea, shall Christ be born," 2 
though the prophet really meant nothing whatever of the 
kind. There was a great difficult}?- here. The primitive tra 
dition declared emphatically that Nazareth was the place 
from which Jesus came. We ma}^ still see this distinctly 
enough in our Gospels. Jesus is constantly called the Naza- 

1 1 Corinthians xv. 45, 47. 

2 Matthew ii. 4-6; compare John vii. 42. 



40 DESCENT OF JEStJS. 

rene, or Jesus of Nazareth. This was certainly the name by 
which he was known in his own time ; and of course such 
local names were given to men from the place of their birth, 
and not from the place in which they lived, which might 
constantly be changing. Nazareth is called in so many 
words his own, that is, his native city, 1 and he himself 
describes it so. 2 But in spite of all this the Christians were 
convinced that he must have been born at Bethlehem, so the}' 
had to assume that Joseph and Mary were at Bethlehem at 
the time of his birth. Matthew simply says that it was so, 3 
and adds that they settled at Nazareth some years afterwards 
for a special reason ; 4 and then running off upon the sound 
of the name he sees in this change of abode the fulfilment of 
another prophetic intimation indirectly convej'ed b}' the his- 
tory of Samson : " He shall be a Nazarite unto God," 5 sa}-s 
the angel to Manoah's wife ; and the words, thought the 
Evangelist, referred to Jesus as well as Samson, for there was 
not so much difference between NazanVe and Nazarerce / 6 

Sometimes the Old Testament could not supply the missing 
particulars which seemed necessary to explain some admitted 
fact in the life or character of Jesus, and then there was 
nothing left but to fill in the gap b}- guess-work. In such 
cases it happened, not infrequently, that the literal interpre- 
tation of spiritual expressions, and the misunderstanding of 
the metaphorical st}'le of the East in which the Gospel was 
first preached, so totally distorted the ancient tradition as to 
draw conclusions from it which it was never for a moment 
intended to sanction. An example of this process, too, will 
help us to understand the origin of the accounts of the de- 
scent of Jesus. 

In the first and third Gospels we read that Jesus was born 
miraculously, and that Joseph was only his foster-father. 
How did this belief arise? In the first place, we must notice 
that it was a common idea in ancient times that great found- 
ers of religions such as Buddha and Zoroaster, philosophers 
such as Pythagoras and Plato, and kings such as Romulus 
and Alexander, had had no earthfy father. Perhaps the 
Christians were confirmed in this idea with regard to their 
own Master bj T applying a passage in Isaiah, 7 which they 

1 Matthew xiii. 54 (Mark vi. 1). 

2 Matthew xiii. 57 (Mark. vi. 4; Luke iv. 23, 24), compare John vii. 41, 42 
and i. 45, 46. 

8 Matthew ii. 1. 4 Matthew ii. 22, 23. 6 Judges xiii. 5. 

6 Matthew ii. 23. "< Isaiah vii. 14. 



DESCENT OF JESUS. 41 

completely misunderstood, to the mother of the Messiah, and 
therefore to the mother of Jesus. 1 Besides this, they very 
truty saw in Jesus an altogether unique personality. They 
felt how far above all other men he stood ; that his nobility 
of soul, his goodness, his purity, his exaltation of character, 
and his love raised him above all comparison with other men. 
They were not content to explain these facts from the beauty 
of his natural disposition, its happy development, and the 
holiness and strength of his will. They were determined to 
find a supernatural cause. Three separate representations 
found acceptance in succession. In the earliest times the 
Christians believed that when Jesus was baptized the Holy 
Spirit descended upon him. Somewhat later he was said to 
have been born into the world miraculously, and not as an 
ordinary human being. Finally, an existence in heaven pre- 
vious to his appearance on earth was ascribed to him in order 
to account to some extent for his being so far exalted above 
other meu. 

But it was that misunderstanding of figurative language, 
of which we spoke just now, that was the chief cause at work 
in this instance. "Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit," said 
the believers. To understand this declaration, we must bear 
in mind the peculiar usages of New Testament language. 
It needs but little knowledge of ourselves and others to teach 
us that to be and to do good is no easy task that we can ac- 
complish without effort. Our perverse and selfish nature has 
to be subdued, and our better moral nature raised to suprem- 
ac}\ But what we should express now-a-days by saying 
" we must change our lives and become new and better men," 
is expressed in New Testament language thus : We must be 
born again, born of the Holy Spirit, the principle of all 
good. 2 So when the disciples wished to sa}' of Jesus that he 
did not need to become good because he was good, that he 
did not need to become another and a new man because he 
was a new man already, they expressed it by saying, "He 
was not born again, because he was born of the Holy Spirit 
from the first." And when the original meaning of this 
expression was forgotten, it was easily misunderstood and 
taken literally instead of metaphorically. 

Be} r ond the particulars already mentioned and explained, 

the first Evangelist has nothing to tell us of the descent of 

Jesus. The story of his birth was afterwards embellished 

in various ways, but Matthew is still very short and simple. 

i Matthew i. 23. 2 j h n Hi. 3, 5, 6; Titus iii. 5. 



4:2 BIRTH AND YOUTH OF JOHN. 

He only tells us that Joseph saw an angel in a dream, and 
was told that the child which Mary (to whom he was only 
betrothed as yet) hoped soon to bear was miraculously con- 
ceived, would be Israel's redeemer, and must be called Jesus, 
that is deliverer, bringer of salvation. The scruples which 
Joseph had previously felt were now remored, and in obe- 
dience to the divine command he took Mary as his wife, and 
soon afterwards called her first-born son by the name which 
the angel had given him. 

In taking our leave for the present of Matthew, we must 
not fail to notice that though these stories of the David ic 
origin of Jesus and his birth of the virgin Maiy at Bethlehem 
spring from the religious prejudices of the early Christians, 
yet they bear witness also to the deep impression which Jesus 
made upon them, and their intense and unreserved devotion 
to him personally. Regarded from this point of view, the 
stories still retain their value for us, though we cannot help 
feeling that after all their authors never really understood 
the Master. 

In this first sketch explanations, arguments, and refuta- 
tions have taken the place of regular narrative, but all that 
has now been said will be an immense help to us in future. 
We have been breaking a pathway, as it were, through brush- 
wood and jungle, and when we meet with such obstructions 
again they will hardly delay our progress at all. Once con- 
vinced that our knowledge of the apostolic age throws light 
upon the narratives of the Gospels, we rnay henceforth make 
free use of the key we have discovered. 



Chapter II. 

THE BIRTH AND YOUTH OF JOHN. 

Luke I. 5-25, 57-80. 

THE Gospel history does not begin, as we might have 
expected, with its great hero, Jesus. But to prepare us, 
as it were, for his appearance, it associates with him another 
prophet, who was to proclaim his coming, as a herald an- 
nounces the approach of his king. There is some reason 
in this, for the new day that breaks upon the religious life of 
the world when the sun of truth rises above the horizon, in 



BIRTH AND YOUTH OF JOHN. 43 

Jesus, was indeed heralded by its morning star. On the 
threshold of this new course of spiritual development we see 
the might}* form of one who belonged to the old period him- 
self and stood upon the soil of Israel's religion, but who 
points with outstretched hand to the great salvation that is 
drawing near, though he himself has not as yet formed an}' 
true conception of its nature and extent. His name is John. 
The position in which he stands towards the Messianic king- 
dom reminds us of the fortunes of that other man of God, 
Moses, who led the children of Israel towards the promised 
land, brought them up to its very boundaries, but might not 
set his own foot upon its soil ; for he breathed his last on 
Mount Nebo, so near to the goal he had passionately longed 
to reach, and the purpose to which he had devoted his life. 

The preaching of the Apostles themselves 1 and the earliest 
G ospel tradition 2 appear to have opened with the work of 
John. We need not wonder, therefore, that when the Chris- 
tians of a later time endeavored to mount up to the origin 
of their religion, and prefaced their account of the public life 
of Jesus by stories about his birth and childhood, Luke 
should have tried to go to the very root of the whole matter 
by opening his work with a similar account of the birth of 
John. After what has been said already, we shall see that 
from the veiy nature of the case this story must be a legend 
of :ater origin, but it is none the less interesting on that 
account. Here it is : — 

Under the reign of King Herod there dwelt in the moun- 
tain districts of southern Palestine, in a city of Judah — 
Hebron it has been supposed — a devout and virtuous couple. 
Both man and wife were of noble and priestly blood, but 
that did not make them proud and worldly Saclclucees like 
the magnates of Jerusalem. On the contrary, Zachariah and 
Elizabeth, for so the}' were called, were simple people, who 
preferred to keep away from the court and from the turmoil 
of the capital. Not only were they strict in their observance 
of all the precepts of the Law and the tradition, and irre- 
proachable in their lives, but they looked forward with eager 
expectation to the founding of the Messianic kingdom. The 
rule of the Idumsean Herod, the minion of the Romans, grew 
still heavier and more hateful as his age advanced, and made 
them, together with so many pious Israelites besides, long all 
the more passionately that God would now be gracious to his 
1 Acts i. 22, x. 37. 2 Mark i. 1-4. 



44 BIRTH AND YOUTH OF JOHN. 

people, would fulfil the promises he had given lyy the proph- 
ets, restore the throne of David, and enrich Israel with all 
spiritual and temporal blessings. 

In their domestic life they felt a grievous want, for they 
were childless ; and since they had both reached a great age 
they could hardly hope that the wish of their hearts would 
yet be fulfilled, and their disgrace removed. For among 
the Jews it was reckoned a disgrace to be childless, and 
these people knew not how they had deserved it. And so, 
old as the}* were, they could not give up pra3 T ing that this 
curse might be removed ; and as Zachariah offered his con- 
stant prayers for the deliverance and glory of Israel, he could 
not help adding his supplication that, as in ancient days to 
Sarah and Manoah's wife and Hannah, so now to his Eliza- 
beth, God would give a son after long and almost hopeless 
waiting. 

Now the priests were divided into four-and-twenty classes 
or families, called after the two sons of Aaron, Eleazer and 
Ithamar, and each class in turn conducted the services of the 
temple for a week. About twice in the 3*ear, therefore, 
when the time came round for the eighth class, to which he 
belonged, Zachariah would journey to Jerusalem to acquit 
himself of his official duties. It was the custom to decide 
by lot which member of the class on duty should have the 
privilege of burning the incense on the golden altar in the 
Holy Place. It was a great privilege, for it brought the of- 
ferer as near to the face of the Lord as it was ever possible 
or allowable for even a priest to go, except, indeed, the high 
priest himself. Once on a time the lot fell to Zachariah. 
He laid the incense and the aromatic spices reverently in the 
scale, and entered the sanctuary. When he came to the 
altar of incense, he poured out the glowing coals which 
another priest had carried in after him, and then strewed the 
incense over them. The cloud of fragrance rose — a 53- mbol 
of the pikers of the saints 1 — and filled the chamber. But 
what is this ? Great terror has laid hold of Zachariah. At 
the right of the altar, the place of propitious omens, by the 
glimmer of the lamps upon the golden candlestick, he dis- 
cerns through the thick clouds of vapor a heavenly form. 
It was an angel of the Lord that stood before him ! But he 
must overcome the fear that possessed him ; for it was a 
messenger of goou, who came to promise him that God would 
grant his pra} T er. He should have a son, and was to call him 

1 K chelation v. 8. 



BIRTH AND YOUTH OF JOHN. 45 

John (Johanan), that is, God is propitious. His birth would 
give great joy to many, to his parents first of all; he would 
be a great religious hero, a Nazarite all his life long, and a 
prophet like Elijah of old. He would prepare for the Mes- 
sianic kingdom by restoring piety and virtue to honor in 
Israel. Zachariah could hardly believe the message. He 
and his wife were now so old ! Then the angel made him- 
self known as Gabriel, one of the seven spirits of the throne, 
or angel-princes, and punished Zachariah for his want of 
faith 03- making him dumb. He was not to recover speech 
until the promise was fulfilled. 

Meanwhile the people were standing in the fore-courts and 
muttering their prayers, as they waited for Zachariah to re- 
turn from the sanctuary and give them the priestly blessing. 
What could have happened to him that he stayed so long? 
At last he came out, but, though he stretched out his arms 
and motioned with his hand, he could not utter a sound. 
Then they understood that he had seen a vision. 

When his week of duty was over, he returned at once to 
his dwelling-place. What joy to Elizabeth that the shame of 
her childlessness would be removed ! But for a long time 
she kept the secret that she hoped to be a mother carefully 
to herself; and when in the course of time she actually 
give birth to a male infant, her fellow townspeople and rela- 
tives rejoiced with all their hearts in the blessing that God 
hud given her. Eight chays after the child's birth, the} T ah 
came up to the ceremony of circumcision and naming. 
The^y wanted the child to be called Zachariah, after his father, 
but Elizabeth herself said it must be John. As no one in 
the family had ever had this name, they referred to the 
father, who was still speechless, for his decision. He took 
the writing tool, and scratched on a wax tablet, u His name 
is John." As soon as he had thus fulfilled what Gabriel had 
enjoined, his powers of speech were given him again, and to 
the amazement of all present he poured out his heart in a 
loft}' song of praise to God. This wondrous child was a 
pledge to him that God's great promise, the coming of the 
Messiah, would soon be fulfilled ; and in his sacred joy the 
happy father felt as though the deliverance of Israel from 
the hated } T oke of the t}Tant and shameful dependence upon 
heathen Rome were alread} T accomplished, and the illustrious 
son of David were alread} T come. All that the prophets had 
predicted would now come to pass ; the covenant that the 
Lord had made with the generations of old, and his oath to 



46 BIRTH AND TOUTH OF JOHN. 

Abraham, would be confirmed, and his people would worship 
him unmolested, in freedom and in might. Well might Zach- 
ariah utter the rapturous prophec}-, that his new-born son 
would prepare the great deliverance of God's merely, and be 
a prophet in Israel ! 

Of course these strange events produced a deep impres- 
sion. The tale was passed from mouth to mouth through the 
whole country round, and everyone questioned and wondered 
what the boy would turn out to be. Evidently he was no 
ordinary child. 

Nor did he grow up as ordinary children do. For while 
his bod}' and soul developed freely, he spent the years of 
childhood and } T outh far from the tumult and unclean ness of 
the world, in the wilderness hard by his native place, till the 
moment came for him to appear in Israel as a prophet. 

This stoiy bears every mark of being a pure invention. 
It carries us right to the centre of the religious ideas and 
conceptions of the Jews, and with them it stands or falls. 
If we cannot accept these beliefs, we cannot for a moment 
regard the narrative as trustworthy. Only consider ! An 
angel comes upon the scene ; but is it not remarkable that 
his name is as good Hebrew as though he were a Jew? 
Might we not just as well suppose the inhabitants of heaven 
to speak Greek or English as Hebrew? The angel makes 
himself known as Gabriel, "who stands before God;" but 
this idea that there were different ranks of angels, and that 
the seven highest chiefs, Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, Uriel, 
and the rest, surrounded God's throne as his first ministers 
of state, is of course a mere figment of the imagination. It 
is not even an originally Jewish belief, for though the Jews 
themselves had long thought of God as though he were an 
Eastern monarch, and had imagined heaven, his abode and 
that of the angels, to be arranged like a royal court, yet 
the details of their angelology were for the most part bor- 
rowed from the Persians. Then, again, nothing could be 
more pardonable than the doubts entertained by Zachariah, 
for he did not even know with what an exalted being he was 
conversing. Abraham and Sarah had laughed on hearing a 
similar announcement from the lips of God himself, and had 
escaped with a simple reprimand ; but later Jewish supersti- 
tion would not tolerate a moment's questioning of any thing 
that was held to be, or claimed to be, a supernatural revela- 
tion, and this is why the priest has such a heav} T punishment 



BIRTH AND YOUTH OF JOHN. 4 < 

to bear. And again, in Zachariah's song of praise we find 
the son of David, the mighty king, the deliverance from 
heathen oppression, in a word, the Jewish Messianic expec- 
tation which was never fulfilled ; but in the story the song 
represents the pure and perfect truth, for the happy father 
wi prophesies, being filled with the Holy Spirit." But enough. 
From what we have noticed already , especially from this last 
point, we ma)' reach a conclusion which the scenes that fol- 
low will confirm ; namely, that the first two chapters of Luke, 
which record the birth of John and Jesus and stand quite 
alone, are taken from Jewish-Christian sources, though per- 
haps partly recast by the Evangelist to suit his purpose. Such 
an origin is indicated b} r their very style and language, which 
show a far stronger Hebrew coloring than characterizes the 
rest of the Gospel. 

What is the origin of our story? It was natural enough 
that in the case of an only child, especially if its parents had 
long hoped and waited in vain for such a blessing, the Jews' 
should have thought " the child has surely some great destiny 
marked out for him by God." But then the process was re 
versed by the legends, and because a man turned out to be 
remarkable, it was said u he must have been the only child 
of a couple who had remained childless for years," — ■ a bitter 
trial to the Israelite, and one which he regarded as a sign of 
God's displeasure. In the same vein, the apociyphal " Gos- 
pel of James," towards the end of the second centuiy, tells us 
of the birth of Maiy, the mother of Jesus. Her parents, 
Joachim and Anna, deeply grieved and bitterly reviled 
because of the sterilhrv of their wedlock, each receives an 
angelic vision, with a promise that the curse shall be re- 
moved ; and, in course of time, Mary comes into the world. 
In the case of Zachariah and Elizabeth, the wonder is still 
further heightened by our being informed that they were 
aged people, quite stricken in 3*ears. But, if we can haidly 
believe that people of such an age could have the quiet of 
their home so happily disturbed by the birth of a child, we 
have no difficulty, on the other hand, in explaining why 
such a fiction should have been produced. Not only the 
fates of the Christ, but those of his predecessor — and such 
was John held to be — were supposed to be indicated in the 
Old Testament ; and this story is manifestly copied from the 
account of Abraham and Sarah, Manoah and his wife, and 
Elkanah and Hannah. From the first of these stories the 
legend borrowed the great age of the father and mother. 



48 BIRTH AND YOUTH OF JOHN. 

and the father's slowness to believe the promise. 1 The life- 
long dedication as a Nazarite and the lofty destination of the 
promised son are taken from the story of the birth of Sam- 
son, 2 while Hannah's first-born son is also described as a 
Nazarite and a great prophet. 3 Finally, a precedent for the 
appearance of Gabriel and the dumbness of Zachariah might 
also be found in Scripture ; for in the Book of Daniel the same 
archangel appears and is mentioned b} T name, 4 and Daniel 
himself is on another occasion visited, at least for a time, 
with dumbness. 5 

This is certainly the way in which the story rose. But 
if we reflect for a moment we shall readily admit that the 
feeling which lies at the bottom of it is not altogether false. 
Such a use as is here made of the Old Testament is doubtless 
unwarrantable and due to mistaken conceptions ; but the 
fundamental idea from which it starts is perfectly true, in 
spite of all the gross exaggerations which have deformed it. 
This fundamental idea is the belief that a single thread of 
development runs through the history of Israel's religion 
and the origin of Christianity, through the Old and the 
New Covenant ; that a close connection of origin and pur- 
pose must be recognized between the elect of former times 
and God's new messengers, John and Jesus, and that in the 
persons and the circumstances of these two the echo of a 
hoary antiquit} 7 may be often caught. There is a more or 
less marked coincidence between the ancient and the modern 
prophets in their sense of God's summons to them, in their 
work and their hope, in their struggles, their disappointments, 
and the opposition they had to encounter. As we go on, we 
shall often see how Jesus himself clung to this thought, and 
found in the history of the ancient heroes of faith a fore- 
shadowing of the reception he would meet and the fate in 
store for him. And even in this story of John's miraculous 
birth there is a certain fitness. The character, the actions, 
and the nature of commonplace men are easily enough ex- 
plained by ordinary causes, such as parentage, position, and 
ciicumstances, and it seems unnecessary to take any special 
or original factor into account ; but wherever there is true 
genius or true nobility and exaltation of character, — even 
without celebrity, for celebrated men are not always great, 
nor great men celebrated, — then it seems to us as if the spirit 

1 Gen. xvii. 17, xviii. 13. 2 Judges xiii. 

3 1 Samuel i. 11, ii. 26, iii. 19-21. 4 Daniel viii. 16, ix. 21, 

6 Daniel x. 15. 



BIRTH AND YOUTH OF JOHN. 49 

of power, of holiness, and of love that dwells in man, in a 
word, it seems as if God himself were working in some spe- 
cial wa}\ 

There is one more point in the story which calls for special 
notice, since it possesses a peculiar interest in connection 
with the rest of the Gospel history. When Gabriel promises 
Zachariah that his son will make ready for the fulfilment 
of the Messianic promise, he uses the words, " He shall go 
out before God, the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah." 
In itself, this expression would strike us simply as a com- 
parison between John and the most renowned of the prophets 
made as a testimony in John's honor. But even in the more 
ancient passages of the Gospels Elijah is constantly mentioned, 
and John identified with him. Na} T , Jesus himself expressly 
testifies of John, " He is the Elijah who was to come." * 

What is the meaning of this? Malachi had promised that, 
before the fearful judgment which would inaugurate the Mes- 
sianic age, Yah weh "would send his messenger to prepare 
the wa}* before him," that is, to remove every thing that of- 
fended him, — the want of reverence and mercy, and all the 
other sins of the Israelites. 2 This messenger was to be " the 
prophet Elijah, who would put an end to domestic feuds." 8 
Now Gabriel directly quotes this prophecy as about to be 
fulfilled in the son of Elizabeth's old age. But the quotation 
seems inappropriate and arbitrary ; for John was not Elijah, 
and the archangel, perceiving this, gave a fresh turn to the 
words, and said " a prophet in the spirit and power of Elijah." 
But the passage in Malachi distinctly announced the coming 
of Elijah himself, and the Jews accordingly looked for the re- 
turn of the ancient prophet in person. It seems that they 
appealed in confirmation to the words put into the mouth of 
Moses : " Yahweh shall raise up a prophet in your midst, like 
unto me" 4 No one had come after Moses who stood so high 
in the people's estimation as Elijah. The deep impression he 
had left behind him and the colossal proportions assumed by 
his figure in tradition are attested by the legends that were 
circulated about him. 5 No other hero lived on in the thoughts 
and imagination of the people as he did ; 6 the Rabbis circu- 
lated a host of stories about him ; and to this ven day a chair 
is left empty for him when the Jews circumcise their chil- 

1 Matthew xi. 14. 2 Malachi iii. 1. 8 Malachi iv. 5, 6. 

4 Deuteronomy xviii. 15-18. 5 1 Kings xvii. ff., and vol. iii. ch. xii. 

6 Luke iv. 25,26; James v. 17, 18; above all, Jesus Sirach xlviii. 1-12. 

VOL. III. 3 



50 BIRTH AND YOUTH OF JOHN. 

clren ! But the Old Testament itself gave ground enough 
for regarding Elijah as " the prophet like unto Moses, whom 
Yahweh should raise up." He had every right to be regarded 
as the representative of the prophetic order. Nay, had he 
not, like the great law-giver, seen and spoken to Yahweh on 
Mount Horeb ? * And this is wiry the names of Moses and 
Elijah are constantly associated in the New Testament, and 
the two represented as on an equality with each other. 2 More- 
over, there was a special reason for regarding it as possible 
that Elijah might return to Israel, for according to the legend 
he had not died, but had been taken up alive to heaven. It 
was but natural to suppose that his abode in the dwelling- 
place of God and the angels was but for a time ; that he was 
taken there provisionally, to manifest himself again at the 
appointed time and to fulfil his mission. His task would 
then be to avert the divine wrath ere it was yet too late, by 
the power of his preaching to Israel ; to restore domestic 
peace to the bosom of his people ; to collect the oppressed 
and scattered tribes, and restore them >to their former pros- 
perity. Blessed was he who should live to see the day ! And 
even now the belief still lives among the Jews that Elijah 
will revisit Israel three days before the Messiah. 

The contemporaries of Jesus, then, were convinced that 
Elijah would come to restore all things in Israel to their 
proper state, 3 in order to prepare for the establishment of 
the Messianic kingdom. Such was the teaching of the 
Scribes, 4 and such the expectation of the people. 5 But John 
was not Elijah, and knowing, as he must have done, that he 
was not the ancient prc^het come to earth again, he never 
professed that he was. 6 What was it, then, that made the 
Jewish-Christian who sketched this scene call John an Elijah. 
and, by speaking of " a prophet in the spirit and power of 
Elijah," give such a dexterous turn to the prophec}' of Malachi 
and the expectations of the Israelites as to make them appli- 
cable to John ? How could the second Evangelist begin his 
work bj T quoting this prophetic passage as though it were 
fulfilled in John? 7 And what right had Jesus himself to 
say in the hearing of the people : kk If you will receive it, he 

i 1 Kings xix. 8-18. 

2 Matthew xvii. 3 (Mark ix. 4; Luke ix. 30); Revelation xi. 3 ff. Compare 
Revelation xi. 6 with 1 Kings xvii. 1, and Exodus vii. 19. 

3 Matthew xvii. 11 (Mark ix. 12). * Matthew xvii. 10; Mark ix. 11. 
5 Matthew xvi 14 (Mark viii. 28; Luke ix. !!)). 

fi ConiDare John i. 21. 7 Mark i. 2. 



BIRTH OK JESUS. 51 

is the Elijah that sho ild come," * and afterwards to repeat 
and elaborate 1 liis explanation to his disciples? 2 

It was because John had been courageous enough not to 
wait an}' longer for a prophet who had been dead a thousand 
years to come to earth again, but had said, " /will do it!" 
and had seized the work from Elijah's hand. He could not 
sit still and wait. The Messianic kingdom must come now. 
It might seem a piece of presumptuous audacity, a desperate 
act of violence, but he was determined himself to hasten the 
founding of the kingdom of God ; and thus he tacitty stepped 
into Elijah's place. 

Well might Gabriel say to the priest, ' ' Your son shall be 
great in the sight of the Lord ; " well might the Evangelist 
describe his growth in the words, " The child grew, and 
waxed strong in spirit." 

We can understand the testimony of Jesus : " Verily I say 
unto you, among them that are born of women there hath 
not risen a greater than John the Baptist." 3 



Chapter III. 

THE BIRTH OF JESU8 

Luke I. 26-56; II. 1-20. 

NEARLY half a year had passed, says Luke, since Zacha- 
riah's vision in the temple, when God summoned his 
faithful Gabriel once more, and gave him a message of 
supreme and joyous import. Obedient to his command, 
Gabriel descended from heaven and alighted in the Gali- 
lean city of Nazareth. In this place dwelt a certain Joseph, 
who was on the point of being married to a maiden of the 
same place, whose name was Mary. The message of the 
angel was to her. He entered the chamber where she sat. 
"All hail, thou favored one of heaven! The Lord is with 
thee ! " he exclaimed. Mary was troubled and perplexed, 
not knowing what this solemn greeting meant. But Gabriel 
quieted her fears, and ^announced to her the birth of a son, 
whom she was to call Jesus. He would ascend the throne of 

1 Matthew xi. 14; compare verse 10. 

2 Matthew xvii. 11-13 (Mark ix 12, 13). a Matthew xi. 11 



5tf BIRTH OF JESUS. 

Ihe Messiah, and hold sway over Israel for ever. Mary 
replied in amazement that she was not married yet, but the 
angel set the difficulty aside by an appeal to God's omnipo- 
tence. Her child would be, in the most literal sense of the 
word, a son of the Most High. To confirm her faith he 
announced to her that her cousin Elizabeth hoped to become 
a mother in her old age ; and when Mary in humility and 
gratitude had received the promise vouchsafed to her, the 
angel rose up again on high. 

Following out the suggestion sent to her from God, Mary 
lost no time in paying a visit to Elizabeth. It was a distant 
journey to the mountains of Judah in the south, but she 
longed to visit and speak to her aged relative, who was in so 
much the same position as herself. She had no cause to 
repent of her resolution ; for she had no sooner crossed the 
threshold of Zachariah's house and offered her greeting to 
Elizabeth, than the latter, enlightened at the very moment 
by God, welcomed her as blessed among women, as the 
mother of her Lord, and was so filled with sacred enthusiasm 
arid religious awe that the jo} T ous exaltation came on Mary 
too, and she gave vent to her ecstasy in a song of thanks- 
giving to God for the goodness he had shown to her, and 
above all for the deliverance of Israel from the heathen yoke 
and the fulfilment of His promises to the fathers. We can 
well understand that Mary prolonged her stay with her cousin 
to its utmost possible extent ; she remained in Elizabeth's 
house three months, but was then obliged to leave her and go 
back to Nazareth. 

It was not at Nazareth, however, in the house of her 
betrothed, that she gave birth to the child. God had or- 
dained it otherwise. About this time, when the pro-consul 
Fublius Sulpicius Quirinus was governor of Syria, a lxyyal 
decree was issued at Rome, to the effect that a census or 
rating should be made of all the world ; that is to say, of the 
whole Roman empire. It was called a registration in those 
clays, and consisted in drawing up lists for taxation, in which 
every one's name, means of subsistence, and propert}" were 
entered. In the kingdom of Herod, as elsewhere, this cen- 
sus must be made ; but in this district a very peculiar mode 
of carrying it out was adopted. Each citizen was to go and 
be entered at the place whence his family was originally 
derived, and where the family roll was kept. As a descend- 
ant of David, therefore, Joseph had to go to Bethlehem, 
David's native city. Mary might have stayed at Nazareth 



BIRTH OF JESUS. 0,1 

had she chosen to do so, and Joseph might have had her 
registered as his betrothed ; but, in spite of the difficulties so 
long a journey must have offered her, she accompanied him 
to Bethlehem. This considerably lengthened the time they 
spent on the way, which under ordinary circumstances would 
have been three days. At last they reached the place of 
their destination, not without much care and anxiety. 

They were very unfortunate when they got there, however. 
If they had hoped to find a comfortable resting-place they 
were disappointed. The same cause that had brought them 
to Bethlehem had also brought a host of others, who had 
arrived before them, and had taken up all the available 
accommodation. In the caravansary, a great building open 
to travellers, in which they and their beasts of burden could 
generally spend the night for nothing, there was no more 
room. What was to be done? They were at their wits' 
end ; for they had no acquaintances upon whose hospitality 
they could reckon, and they were too poor to hire a lodging, 
even if every house had not been more than full already. !So 
at last they were compelled to go into the stable of the inn, 
and make the best of such accommodation as it offered. 

It was high time they did so, for that very night, when all 
around were sunk in sleep, and Joseph and Mary were quite 
alone, she brought a baby-bo3 r into the world. The young, 
mother herself did all that was needed for her first-born child, 
gently and carefully wrapped him in swaddling clothes, avid 
laid him down in the manger that was meant to hold the cat- 
tle's food ! 

There lay the helpless little thing ! The world gave no 
heed to his first cry, and no one knew that a man was born. 
But a heart that overflowed with a mother's pride offered up 
its homage to the God of mercy, and Joseph knelt by the 
manger and thanked the Lord from the depths of his soul 
that He had been with them in their need. 

That same night, perhaps an hour or two later, they re- 
ceived an unexpected visit ; but so far from disturbing them 
it was an unspeakably joyful surprise. Certain men, whom 
their humble attire seemed to mark as shepherds, respect- 
fully and cautiously asked to be admitted. Their faces glowed 
with sacred enthusiasm ; their eyes were lighted up with 
eager expectation. What could have happened to them? 
As soon as they entered they began to look about, and asked 
for the new-born babe. How did they know any thing of 
him? Let them tell their own story. 



54 BIRTH OF JESUS. 

At the moment of the baby's birth, they were keeping 
watch over their flocks Ivy night in the open country round 
Bethlehem. As they were sitting and tying about, talking to 
one another, or occupied with their own thoughts, a wonder 
came to pass which at first filled them with deadly terror. 
The darkness was suddenly dispelled b}' an unearthly glor}', 
as the light that shines round the throne of God flooded all 
the scene. An angel stood before them, and quieted their 
fears. He brought good news for Israel. The Messiah was 
born that very night at Bethlehem. They would easily find 
him, — a new-born child laid in a manger. The shepherds 
had scarcely heard the news, and had not yet recovered from 
their amazement, when the heavenly music of angel choirs 
swept through the air in sweeter tones than earth had ever 
heard : — 

Glory to God in the highest, 

and peace on earth ! 

His will is good toward man. . . . 

The ineffably sweet and glorious vision was gone, and all 
was still again. The shepherds were left gazing at one an- 
other ; but in another moment they were hurrying to Bethle- 
hem to assure themselves of the truth of this great news. 
And there they found the humble scene, just as it had been 
.described to them ! They told their tale to all who would 
hear it, and made known everywhere what God had an- 
nounced to them about this bab}\ The wondrous story 
waked amazement far and near, and if many of those who 
heard it soon forgot it again, it was not so with Mary. Not 
a word was lost by her ; and not only as the shepherds, ren- 
dering high praise to God, were returning to their work, but 
often and often in after years, she pondered in quiet rapture 
over that vision and that song. 

Such is the well-known story of the birth of Jesus, one 
of the sweetest and most deeply significant of all the legends 
in the Bible. That it is a legend, without even the smallest 
historical foundation, we must, of course, admit; or if we 
have any doubt on the subject, a moment's consideration 
will remove it. 

All that was said of the appearance of Gabriel to Zachariah * 
is equally applicable to the present case. Indeed, the diffi- 
culties here are still greater. For not only in Mary's song, 
which is imitated from Hannah's, 2 does the Jewish Messianic 

1 See pp. 46, 47. 2 1 Samuel iii. 1-10, and vol. i. p. 436. 



BIRTH O* JESUS. 



55 



expectation, reappear, but also in the words of the angel him- 
self, who foretells to MVy that her son shall sit upon the throne 
of David his ancestor, and rule over Israel. Now of course, 
if a messenger from heaven had really come to bring a divine 
revelation to Mary, the result must have confirmed his pre- 
dictions ; and since Jesus never fulfilled these expectations it 
is obvious that the revelation was never made. Both the 
promise and the song of praise owe their origin to the obsti- 
nate belief of the Jewish-Christians, retained even after the 
death of Jesus, that he would come again from heaven, would 
expel the Romans, establish an earthly kingdom, and, in 
short, realize their dreams of national triumph. 1 

We must add that the representation given by Matthew is 
irreconcilable with that of Luke. The message of Gabriel 
to Mary, her visit to Elizabeth, and the joyous congratula- 
tions of the latter would have dispensed with the necessit}^ of 
an angel's appearing to Joseph in a dream to remove his 
scruples as to consummating his marriage. This journe}' to 
the mountains of Judah, then, can find no place in the Gos- 
pel of Matthew, nor indeed can it be fitted into the historical 
framework of the life of Jesus ; for when he and John after- 
wards met, as men, they were entire strangers to each other, 
and this could not have been the case if their mothers had 
been near relatives, and had been so well acquainted from the 
very first with the future of their sons and the position in 
which the}' would stand to each other. But above all we 
must note, that according to the first Gospel Joseph and 
Mary lived at Bethlehem, according to the third at Nazareth. 
From the belief which they both accepted as an article of 
faith that the Christ must be born at Bethlehem, Matthew 
simply concluded that Joseph and Mary lived there ; whereas 
Luke (or his authority) was too well aware of the uniformity 
of the tradition that they had always lived at Nazareth to ac- 
cept this explanation, and therefore hit upon another, after 
much reflection. He brings them up to the city of David on 
a very special occasion and for a veiy short period. Hardly 
have they got there when Jesus is born, 2 and within six weeks 
they are on their way home again. 3 

This special occasion was the census. 4 But here again we 
are met by overwhelming difficulties. In itself, the Evange- 
list's account of the manner in which the census was carried 
out is entirely incredible. Only fancy the indescribable conui- 

1 Acts i. 6, and elsewhere. 2 Luke ii. 6. 

8 Luke ii. 39. 4 Luke ii. 1-5. 



56 BIRTH OF JESUS. 

sion that would have arisen if every one, through the length 
and breadth of the land of the Jews, had left his abode to go 
and enrol himself in the city or village from which his family 
originally came, even supposing that he knew where it was. 
The census under David was conducted after a very different 
fashion. 1 But it is still more important to note that the Evan- 
gelist falls into the most extraordinar} T mistakes throughout. 
In the first place histoiy is silent as to a census of the whole 
(Roman) world ever having been made at all. In the next 
place, though Quirinus certainly did make such a register in 
Judsea and Samaria, it did not extend to Galilee ; so that 
Joseph's household was not affected by it. Besides it did 
not take place till ten years after the death of Herod, when 
his son Archelaus was deposed b} r the Emperor, and the dis 
tricts of Judsea and Samaria were thrown into a Roman prov- 
ince. Under the reign of Herod nothing of the kind took 
place, nor was there any occasion for it. Finally, at the 
time of the birth of Jesus the governor of Syria was not Qui- 
rinus, but Quintus Sentius Saturninus. You will easily see 
that, if the occasion of the journey of Joseph and Maiy to 
Bethlehem rests upon a tissue of confusions and mistakes, 
the whole story falls to the ground. 

One more remark, which would be enough in itself to 
justif} 7 us in absolutely rejecting the whole account of the 
birth of Jesus. Every other passage of the New Testament 
which bears upon the question, the sequel of the life of Jesus, 
the whole contents of the Gospels, in a word, all accessible 
sources of information without exception, are in direct con- 
tradiction with it. We have already seen that Nazareth is 
called the birthplace of Jesus, both by himself and every 
one else, and that two distinct pedigrees were drawn up on the 
supposition that Joseph was his father. 2 So, too, in the stories 
of the presentation in the temple 3 and of the child Jesus at 
Jerusalem, 4 Joseph is called his father. Jesus is repeatedly 
described as the son of the carpenter, 5 or the son of Joseph, 
without the least indication that the expression is not strictly 
in accordance with fact. 6 The Apostle Paul expresses him- 
self in the same sense. Neither the Gospel of Mark, which 
in this respect at least abides most faithfully by the old apos- 
tolic tradition, nor that of John, sa} T s a word about Bethlehem 
or the miraculous birth. The congregation of Jerusalem to 

i 2 Samuel xxiv. 1-9, and vol. ii. ch. iv. p. 26. 2 See pp. 36, 39. 

8 Luke ii. 27. 4 Luke ii. 41-48. 6 Matthew xiii. 55. 

• Luke iv. 22; John i. 46, vi. 42; see, however, Luke iii. 23. 



BIRTH OF JESUS. 57 

tvhich Mary and the brothers of Jesus belonged, 1 and over 
which the eldest of them, James, presided, 2 can have known 
nothing of it ; for the later Jewish-Christian communities, the 
so-called Ebionites, who were descended from the congrega- 
tion of Jerusalem, called Jesus the son of Joseph. Na} T , the 
story that the Holy Spirit was the father of Jesus must have 
risen among the Greeks, and not among the first believers, 
who were Jews, for the Hebrew word for spirit is of the 
feminine gender. The Ebionites, therefore, called the Holy 
Spirit the mother and not the father of Jesus. 

Only think ! If the birth of Jesus had realty taken place 
under such extraordinary circumstances, announced b} T a 
messenger from heaven, and hymned in mortal ears by a 
"great compairy of the heavenly host," how would it have 
been possible that every trace of such wonders should have 
disappeared, that the}' should all have passed away, and left 
no recollection after them? Yet this takes place according 
to the Gospel ; for not only is the general public entirely 
ignorant of these events (though the news must have spread 
like fire through the land, especially when the Messianic 
expectation was at such a height), but his own family show 
be3'ond a doubt that they had not the faintest conception of 
the lofty significance of the personalh:y of Jesus. This would 
be inconceivable were the story genuine history. If his 
parents fail to understand him when he says, at twelve years 
old, that he must be in his Father's house ; 3 if he himself 
afterwards declares that he finds no faith among his nearest 
relatives ; 4 if he exalts his faithful disciples above his unbe- 
lieving mother and brothers ; 5 above all, if Mary and her 
other sons put down his prophetic enthusiasm to insanuy, 6 
— then the untrustwortlry nature of these stories of his birth 
is absolutely certain. If even a little of what they tell us 
had been true, then Mary at least would have believed in 
Jesus, and would not have failed so utterly to understand 
him. 

But when once we are convinced that the story is not gen- 
uine history, its emblematic meaning comes out - clearly. It 
embodies a poetical conception and description of the per- 
son and the lot of Jesus, and foreshadows his life and work 
in a few bold lines and significant contrasts. Let us glance 

1 Acts i. 14. 2 Acts xxi. 18; Galatians ii. 9, 12. 

8 Lukeii. 50. . * Matthew xiii. 57 (Mark vi. 4). 

a Matthew xii. 48-50 (Mark iii. 33-35). 6 Mark iii. 21, 

3* 



58 BIRTH OF JESUS. 

at the main figures. In the foreground stand Augustas and 
Jesus, — the proud Emperor of Rome, who holds sway over 
the world b} T force of arms, and the lowly son of man, the 
truth of whose preaching, the power of whose spirit, and 
whose self-sacrificing love exact submission from all men. 
But there is another special reason for the introduction of 
Augustus. The first disciples of Jesus, Jews by birth and 
attached to Judaism heart and soul, believed, in their narrow 
national pride, that the Christ was the special possession of 
Abraham's chosen seed. They were jealous of their supposed 
privileges, and barred the entrance to the kingdom of the 
Christ against all who were not Israelites, unless they would 
first go over to Judaism. Our story enters a protest against 
this idea, for the imperial decree to take a census of all the 
world is carried out at the very time of the birth of Jesus, 
who is thus represented as a citizen of the world, belonging 
to all mankind, and not to Israel alone ; the deliverer not 
only of his special people, but of all his brothers over the 
whole earth. Is not that a noble thought? And look again 
what deep and true feeling pervades the legend. For him, 
the great bearer of salvation, a brilliant career is surety held 
in store, and the world will give him a glorious welcome? 
Alas, no ! There is no room for his parents ; no room even 
for Mary, much as she needs it, in the inn. When Jesus 
comes into the world there is not a creature to give him a 
thought, or to help to supply his wants ; and he is cradled in 
a manger. It is the foreshadowing of a life of bereavement. 
He will never rest, never find a home, not so much as a place 
in which to lay his head, until, beset and persecuted on every 
side, the victim of the world's fierce hatred, laden with its 
scornful curses, he drops his wearied head upon the cross in 
eternal rest ! But though he comes without external display, 
though he bears no trace of earthly splendor, and though the 
superficial world sees nothing in the son of the carpenter of 
Nazareth to mark him off from others, yet this event that 
earth passes b} T unnoticed is celebrated with intensest joy and 
brightest radiance in heaven. Contrasting with the deep 
poverty within is the message and the song of angels with- 
out ; and this sharp contrast sums up, as it were, the whole 
life of Jesus, — humble in his earthly lot, majestic in his moral 
grandeur ; without material power, but mighty in the spirit ; 
despised by the world, but glorified by God. The blessed 
tidings are brought to humble shepherds, not to the great 
and wise, - - for Jesus himself bestowed small care upon the 



PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. 59 

great ones of the earth, and was almost always thinking of 
the poor and simple "peoples of the land." It was his 
ambition to befriend the people and console the poor. And 
what a wealth of noble thoughts is crowded into the angelic 
song itself! For the sake of this child of man God rejoices 
in mankind ; he who is to establish the kingdom of peace 
upon earth has come. Surely his birth, with all its results 
of unutterable glor}-, should wake songs of praise and thanks- 
giving to God in hearts overwhelmed with thankful joy ! 

In what a clear and beautiful light this picture places all 
that Jesus may be to us ! What artistic beauty, what deep 
symbolic truth pervades it ! In it the Christians of the olden 
time tried to reproduce their own thoughts and feelings about 
Jesus ; and the legend is the visible expression of their ven- 
eration and gratitude towards him. And though we should 
choose other forms in which to express our reverence for 
Jesus, we can fully share the affection and can rival the 
gratitude that inspired this old legend. It is a declaration 
of faith in Jesus made by the apostolic age ; it is a glowing 
testimony to the high honor which Jesus has a right to claim, 
to the fulfilment in him of the hope which the noblest of our 
race had cherished, to the restoration in his person of the 
honor of human nature, of faith in human worth, and in 
man's calling to spotless holiness. As such we can accept 
it and rejoice in it with all our hearts. Indeed, when we 
consider it rightly, this sweet old legend of the birth of 
Jesus, with all its wondrous beauty, gains a fresh charm fo? 
us when it ceases to rank as history. 



Chapter IV. 

THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. 

Luke II. 21-39. 

" "\XT-^-^^ * ne ^ me appointed by God had come, he sent 
» ▼ forth his son, made of a woman, made under the 
Law." In these words the Apostle Paul 1 describes the birth 
of Jesus as that of an ordinary man, 2 and, what is more, an 
ordinary Israelite. We too often forget that Jesus was an 
Israelite, not only by birth and education, but in his whole 

1 Galatiaus iv. 4. 2 Compare Job xiv. 1 ; Matthew xi. 11. 



60 PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. 

style of thought, speech, and life ; that his conception of the 
universe and his own individual character unmistakably bore 
the Israelitish stamp, and that he can on!}* be rightly under- 
stood and full}' appreciated when this fact is borne in mind. 
It is often difficult to remember this, for Jesus had risen, at 
the price of many an effort and many an internal conflict, far 
above the one-sidedness, the narrowness, the pride, all the 
faults in short that characterized his people. But we must 
try never to lose sight of the fact that he still remained a 
thorough Israelite. 

Luke calls attention to it at the outset, 03- telling us that 
the parents of Jesus scrupulously fulfilled their religious du- 
ties, and faithfully observed the injunctions of the Law with 
respect to their child. 1 On the eighth day after his birth the 
ceremony of circumcision was performed ; and at the same 
time he received his name. 

Both Matthew and Luke find something very remarkable 
in the name Jesus. They say that the new-born child re- 
ceived this name at the command of God as Israel's future 
deliverer. 2 But the fact is that this name, whicli is pro- 
nounced in Hebrew Yezua, and is sometimes Grecized into 
Jason, was very common. After the Captivity it occurs 
quite frequently, and is interchanged with the name Joshua. 
Indeed Joshua, the successor of Moses, is called Jesus in the 
New Testament more than once, 3 though the meaning of the 
two names is not really quite the same. We know of a 
Jesus, son of Sirach, a writer of proverbs, whose collection 
is preserved among the apocryphal books of the Old Testa- 
ment. The notorious Barabbas, or son of Abbas, was himself 
called Jesus. Among Paul's opponents w r e find a magician 
called Elymas, the son of Jesus. Among the early Christ- 
ians a certain Jesus, also called Justus, appears. Flavins 
Josephus mentions more than ten distinct persons — priests, 
robbers, peasants, and others — who bore the name of 
Jesus, all of w r hom lived during the last centuiy of the 
Jewish state. But we need not be surprised to find the 
Evangelists laying such stress upon the name, for the nar- 
ratives of the Old Testament have taught us that the Israel- 
ites thought much more of names than we do ; for we hardly 
ever think of their meaning, and in most cases do not so 
much as know what it is. The Israelites, on the other hand, 
saw in the meaning of every great man's name a prophecy of 

1 Luke ii. 21, 22, 23, 24, 39, 41. 2 Matthew i. 21; Luke i. 3L. 

8 Acts vii. 45; Hebrews iv. 8; compare Nehemiah viii. 17. 



PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. 61 

his character, his fortunes, or something that specially con- 
cerned him. Thus the} T inverted the real order of things, 
for in reality it was not the name which described the man 
by anticipation, but the man whose brilliant services con- 
ferred a special significance upon the name which he hap- 
pened to bear. If Joseph and Mary, instead of calling their 
child Jesus, had happened to give him the name of Solomon 
(= Frederick), David (= Gottlieb) or Isaiah (= Godhelp) 
what legends might not have been spun out of such sugges- 
tive names ! In fact Matthew, if he had had the choice, 
would evidently have preferred Immanuel (= God is with us) 
to Jesus. 1 

Now the name Jesus means deliverance, safety, preserva- 
tion ; or, perhaps, deliverer, 'preserver, 2 and is identical in 
meaning with the Greek expressions which occur in the 
New Testament, and are translated salvation and saviour'. 
But unfortunately we have learned to associate these latter 
words with the life after death, and to think of the bliss of 
heaven when we use them ; whereas the Greek expressions 
a^waj-s refer to the Messianic kingdom, especially to preserva- 
tion from the terrible judgments of God which were to precede 
the founding of the kingdom. In using the words saviour 
aid salvation, therefore, we must remember that they simply 
mean one who saves or delivers, and safety or deliverance. 

The Law declared that a mother who had given birth to a 
boy was unclean for seven days, and must separate herself 
or remain at home for thirty-three days after the circum- 
cision. If the baby was a girl, both periods were doubled. 
All this time the mother must not touch any sacred thing or 
enter the temple. When these days were past she must 
make an offering of purification in the temple, consisting of 
a lamb of one year old for a burnt sacrifice, and a young 
pigeon or turtle-dove for a sin offering ; or, if she was too 
poor to buy a lamb, she might take another dove instead. 
Besides all this, first-born sons must be taken to the temple 
when a month old and presented to the Lord, as it was 
called. They were then bought off or redeemed from him for 
five shekels, a sum about equal to twelve shillings, but since 
money was worth so much more in those days it would be 
equivalent to about twenty da3 T s' wages of a workman. To 
save trouble, this presentation was made at the same time as 
the sacrifice of purification. 

i Matthew i. 23. 2 Siraeh xlvi. 3. 



62 PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. 

II is not qaite certain that all these customs were observed 
after the birth of Jesus. Israelites who lived far from Jerusa 
lem generally waited to make their offerings until one of 
the great feasts furnished a suitable occasion for visiting the 
temple, or even got a friend to make the offerings on their 
behalf. In the same wa} T , the distance from Galilee to the 
capital often prevented the presentation of first-born sons 
in the temple ; and, what is more, we have no sufficient 
grounds for supposing that Jesus was the eldest son of Joseph 
and Mary. But even supposing that all these regulations 
were strictly observed, and that Luke had the means of 
knowing it, he certainly would not have told us all the details 
unless he had had a special reason for doing so. That reason 
may be found in the following story. 

On the fortieth da}', sa}'s Luke, the parents of Jesus went 
to Jerusalem to offer in the temple their two doves (the poor 
man's sacrifice) , to present their son before the Lord, and to 
paj r the price of redemption for him. Here a joj'ful surprise 
awaited them, similar to the one they had already experienced 
on the night of their baby's birth. In the Holy City dwelt a 
certain Simeon, a venerable old man (later traditions state 
that he was far more than a hundred years old) , of perfect 
piety. He fervently longed for the coming of the Messianic 
Kingdom, for the deliverance of Israel from sufferings and 
oppression ; and God had revealed to him that he should see 
the Anointed of the Lord before he died. And now the Holy 
Spirit led him to the temple at the very moment that Joseph 
and Maiy were entering the forecourt. In the lowly child of 
a few weeks old he at once discovered the future Messiah. 
His eyes gleamed with transport at the fulfilment of the fer- 
vent hope he had cherished so long, and, taking the little Jesus 
in his arms, he gave utterance to the thoughts that rushed 
upon him in the song of praise : — 

Lord ! now lettest thou thy servant depart, 

According to thy word, in peace. 

For mine eyes have seen thy saltation 

Which thou hast prepared before all peoples, — 

A light of revelation to the heathen, 

A glory for thy people Israel ! 

The father and mother listened in amazement to this in- 
spired song in praise of their child ; and the old man turned 
to them and blessed them. Then he spoke to Mary alone, 
and said, "Behold, this child is appointed in the counsel of 
God for the fall and the rise of many in Israel: to some he 



PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. 63 

shall be the cause of destruction, to others of salvation. Op- 
position and enmity will surround him, and, alas ! the sword 
will pierce through your heart too. . . . Why must all this 
be? That the hearts of men ma}' be laid bare as the}' are, 
and not as the}' seem." 

Hardly had fcimeon ended, when there came another to 
greet the child. It was the ancient prophetess Anna, a wo- 
man of wondrous piety, who had never consented to a second 
marriage though early left a widow, but was always in the 
temple, and was never weary of fasting and praying. She, 
too, praised God for this future deliverer of Israel, and spoke 
of him to all who hoped for the Messiah in Jerusalem. 

Joseph and Mary now fulfilled the religious duties they had 
come to perform for their infant, and then left the temple with 
their hearts full of the two glorious and unexpected testimo- 
nies they had received. They were naturally anxious to go 
home again ; so they did not return to Bethlehem, where there 
was nothing now to keep them, but started at once on their 
journey to Galilee, and arrived without further adventures at 
their home in Nazareth. 

It is a beautiful picture of the aged Simeon and Anna with 
the tender little baby and the astonished and delighted pa- 
rents all gathered in the house of God ! But it is out of 
the question to regard it as genuine history. We need not 
say much on this point. The supernatural revelation said 
to have been vouchsafed to Simeon, his miraculous guidance 
to the temple at the right moment, his recognition of the 
child, and foreknowledge of what was in store for him, are 
of course incredible. Many years afterwards, when contrary 
to all expectations, including those of Jesus himself, his lot 
had proved so bitter ; when opposition to him had caused the 
fail of Scribes and Pharisees ; when faith in him had been a 
resurrection to publicans and sinners ; when his fearful death 
had sent a two-edged sword through his mother's heart 
(have you ever studied the Mater Dolorosa, or " Mary at the 
Cross," the companion picture of the Ecce Homo, or " Behold 
the man" ?) ; when this catastrophe had sifted the Israelites, 
and shown that many who were outwardly pious were in- 
wardly proud and obstinate, while many seemingly abandoned 
outcasts were saved through penitence and faith, — then this 
prophecy was put into the mouth of Simeon. To invent a 
prophecy when the event it predicts has already taken place 
is a common practice in the Old and New Testaments, and 



64 PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. 

is not even yet abandoned. Again, the Evangelist uncon- 
sciously contradicts himself. How can he say that the pa- 
rents of Jesus were surprised at what they heard about their 
child ? After the message of Gabriel, and the song of angels 
hard by Bethlehem, nothing ought to have astonished them. 
Indeed, Simeon and Anna might very well have learned about 
the birth of the Messiah from rumors of the vision to the shep- 
herds. It is evident, then, that this story is not drawn from 
the same source that supplied the legends of the birth, and 
this is made still clearer by the fact that Joseph is here called 
the father of Jesus. Lastly, the difficulty urged against the 
story of the birth holds good here also. It is impossible to 
reconcile this double salutation with what we know of the 
after life of Jesus. If he had been greeted as the Messiah 
when a baby he could not have remained in obscurity, and 
his family, especially his mother, would have been prepared 
for all that happened, and could not have refused to believe 
in him. 

How T did the legend rise, then? it ma}' naturally be asked. 
Well, it was a poetical creation of the faith of the primitive 
Christians. In the first place, we recognize in these lines the 
joyful cry of a heart overwhelmed with gratitude to God for 
the birth of Jesus. The kt comforter" — a name which the 
Rabbis, too, sometimes apply to the Messiah — had come at 
last, after all their misery ! Their eyes had seen him, their 
hands had touched him, their ears had heard his heavenly 
words. That for which the fervent longing of devout Israel- 
ites in every age had yearned, the hope which even as a dis- 
tant prospect had made the ancient seers burst into sacred 
joy, and had supported many a generation through the bitter- 
ness of disappointment and humiliation, — all this was now 
realized, imperfectly as yet, but no less certainly, in their very 
midst ! Blessed were the eyes that might see what they saw ! 
For, verily, man}' prophets and righteous men had longed for 
it in vain, with a life-long yearning. 1 For this blessing the 
Christians thanked God in transports of holy joy. Salvation 
had come, the light had risen, a guiding star to the heathen,* 2 
and an immortal glory to Israel ! Now they could die in 
peace ! 

This triumphant gratitude is expressed under the characters 
of Simeon and Anna, the noblest representatives of Israel, a 
man and a woman led and inspired by the Holy Spirit ; and 
it is a finely conceived and profoundly significant trait in the 

1 Luke x. 23, 24 (Matthew xiii. 16, 17). 2 Isaiah xlii. 6, xlix. 6. 



PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. 65 

legend, which makes these aged representatives of the depart- 
ing generation raise the song of praise over the infant. It 
was but a small beginning (hardly even a beginning yet) 
of the fulfilment of the promises and expectations. So, too, 
the Christians, in the midst of whom the legend rose, had not 
3'et seen the kingdom of God. It would only come when 
Jesus returned from heaven. But what of that? Had they 
not already received a pledge of it that left no room for doubt ? 
Nay, he whose person was far more than a mere pledge had 
already come, and in him they had seen the great salvation, 
as it were, already with them. No wonder, then, that they 
sang songs of praise. 

But this joyous exultation did not prevent their bowing 
their heads in pensive thought. What had not Jesus experi- 
enced at the hands of his people ! How was it possible ? 
AVhy was it needful? We trace the hand of a master in the 
picture of the hoary Simeon bending over the child as he lay 
in the unconscious slumber of infancy, and uttering the 
prophec} T of the fierce opposition he was to encounter, and 
his mother's bitter grief at the cruel fate that would overtake 
him. Even in sin, the Israelite recognized the commandment 
or the work of God, the execution of his counsel, 1 — and even 
the rejection of Jesus must have been decreed by him. 2 It was 
a sad necessity, without which the varnish could not be wiped 
from hypocrisy, and without which sin that took the guise of 
piety could not be compelled to expose itself. By its hatred 
of the holy servant of God, it passed sentence on itself. 3 

And here we ma,y remark that this judgment, this sifting 
of the good from the bad in accordance with the attitude they 
assume towards Jesus, is still going on, and Jesus is still the 
cause of this man's fall and that man's resurrection, although 
in our time, when his name has been universally adopted, we 
cannot trace the process so distinctly. For Jesus brought a 
new principle of moral and religious life into the world, and 
no one can remain indifferent to him, or to the new and holy 
spirit which went out from him. Consciously or unconsciously 
we must all take sides. If we love not God or our neighbor, 
if we choose to live for ourselves alone, — for our own enjo} T - 
ment, glory, and interest, — -then we fight against Jesus, and 
are so much the worse and more wretched because he came. 
If we have depth of soul enough to understand, to love, to 
follow him, then we are guided b}' his principles, are helped 

1 E.g. Exodus ix. 12, x. 1, 20, 27 ; 2 Samuel xxiv. 7; Isaiah xlv. 7 

2 Acts ii. 23, iv. 27, 28. s j onu ;j, 19_2J . 



66 PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. 

and hallowed b}' bis spirit, and have him to thank for what 
we have become and what we are as moral beings. 

God grant that our hearts may all of them be touched by 
Jesus more and more ; that we, too, may be able to thank 
God for giving us some knowledge of him, that we may share 
those emotions of the early Christians which gave rise to this 
legend, and that the birth of Jesus may wake a song of joy 
in our hearts ! 

There is one more point to consider. Why do we cele- 
brate the birth of Jesus on the 25th of December ? What is 
the origin of our Christmas cla} T ? 

You must know, in the first place, that it was not intro- 
duced at all till a comparatively late period. Days for the 
commemoration of the martjTdom of Stephen (26th Decem- 
ber), and the Massacre of the Innocents (28th December) , 
were fixed before that for the birth of Jesus. It is about the 
middle of the fourth century when we first come upon the 
celebration of Christmas at Rome. It may seem strange that 
the feast of Christmas was introduced into the Church so late, 
while those of Easter and Whitsuntide were observed from 
the very first ; but, if we remember that Christianity sprang 
out of Judaism, we shall find the explanation we seek in the 
fact that there was no Jewish feast which could be Christian- 
ized into a celebration of the birth of Jesus. Moreover, the 
Church had a somewhat similar feast, that of Epiphany, of 
which we shall speak presently, at a much earlier period ; and 
it was, therefore, a long time before any one thought of insti- 
tuting a festival for the birth of Jesus. Ever since the end 
of the second centuiy, however, people had been trying to 
discover upon what particular da} T Jesus had possibly or 
probably come into the world ; and conjectures or traditions 
that rested upon absolutely no foundation led one to the 20th 
of Ma}', another to the 19th or 20th of April, and a third to 
the 5th of January. At last, the opinion of the community 
at Rome gained the upper hand, and the 25th of December 
was fixed upon. 

There was a double reason for selecting this day. In the 
first place, it had been observed from a hoary antiquity as a 
heathen festival, following the longest night of the winter 
solstice, and was called tu the Birthday of the Unconquerable 
Sun." It was a fine thought to celebrate on that clay the 
birth of him whom the Gospel : called ' ' the light of the world ; n 

1 John viii. 12, ix. 5. 



PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. G? 

that is, the sun of humanity, whose rise had been preceded 
by the long and fearful night of sin and ignorance, and whose 
coming had shed light and warmth and life over the hearts 
of men ! A certain preacher even went so far as to say that 
" Christ himself chose the 25th of December for his birthday 
on this very ground ! " The second reason was, that at Roiih 
the days from the 17th to the 23d of December were devoted 
to unbridled merrymaking. These days were called the Sat- 
urnalia, after the god Saturn us, whose memory is still retained 
in the name of the seventh da}' of our week. These Saturna- 
lia were consecrated to the memory of the Golden Age, which 
the heathen placed in the far-off past. All business was 
suspended, the freest hospitality was exercised, and public 
and private rejoicings were universal. All distinctions of 
rank and position were forgotten, and masters and slaves 
sometimes even changed places ! In the Roman carnival 
and some of our Christmas customs the remains of the Satur- 
nalia ma}' still be traced. Now the Church was always 
anxious to meet the heathen, whom she had converted or 
was beginning to convert, half-way, by allowing them to re- 
tain the feasts they were accustomed to, only giving them a 
Christian dress, or attaching a new and Christian signification 
to them. 1 And in the Saturnalia, apart from the licentious- 
ness that disfigured them, the Church must have found much 
that was attractive. Had not Jesus abolished the slavery of 
sin, superseded the distinction between class and class by the 
spirit of brotherly love, and brought in the Golden Age of 
peace with God ? 

Such were the thoughts which the Christians expressed in 
their Christmas festivities ; and even now Christmas is the 
happiest festival of all the year. The very season helps to 
heighten the attractiveness of its warm and home-like customs. 
Our heathen forefathers, the Germans, had a somewhat simi- 
lar feast called Yule, after the shortest day of the year. At 
this feast agreements were renewed, the gods were consulted 
as to the future, sacrifices were made to them, and the time 
was spent in jovial hospitality. Msaiy features of this festi- 
val, such as burning the Yule-log on Christmas-eve, still sur- 
vive among us. In Germany, the birthday of the child Jesus 
is made a children's festival ; and it is to Germany that we 
owe the Christmas trees, now so common in England. In 
Holland, the children's festival is held on St. Nicholas's day, 
the 6th of December, corrupted into Sinterklaas, and by 
i See vol. i. pp. 103-107. 



68 WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. 

us into Santa Claus ; so that in making Santa Claus bring 
the Christmas presents we have mixed np the two distinct 
festivals. 

In German, Christmas is called Weihnachten or Holy Night, 
because it was the practice of the early Church, and of the 
Middle Ages, as it still is of the Roman Catholics, to celebrate 
more especially the night before the 25th of December, since, 
according to Luke, Jesus was born in the night. In English, 
it is simply called Christmas ; that is, the mass or religious 
service held in honor of Christ. 



Chapter V. 

THE WISE MEN FKOM THE EAST. 

Matthew II. 

WE must now put entirely out of our minds all those 
wondrous events which Luke so elaborately describes 
as calling attention to Jesus at the time of his birth, or 
shortly afterwards ; for we are to return to the first Gospel, 
w^iich does not make the slightest allusion to them, and in- 
deed excludes every thing that could possibly have called 
attention to Mary's son, or spread a rumor that the Messiah 
was born. Joseph and his wife, then, were citizens of Beth- 
lehem. 1 Joseph had indeed been intrusted bj T an angel with 
the secret of the divine origin of Jesus ; but of course the 
public had nothing to do with the matter, as it was not a 
thing to publish abroad. Alas ! the people of Bethlehem 
would too soon be compelled to think of their little fellow- 
townsman, and to regard it as a fatal distinction that he had 
been born among them. 

Two years had not passed when an event occurred which 
threw the neighboring Jerusalem into a fever of excitement. 
Certain strangers from the East, belonging to the distin- 
guished order of the magi — that is to say the priests and 
astronomers — had come to the city, and had immediately 
asked where the} T could find the infant king of the Jews. 
They said that many months ago they had marked 'the ap- 
pearance of a new and marvellous star in the heave ns, and 

1 See p. 40. 



WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. 69 

by the rules of their art it showed infallibly that a great ruler 
had been born among the people of the Jews. Upon this 
the}' had set out to come and pa}' their homage to him, and 
had naturally expected to find him in the capital. 

But at Jerusalem no one knew any thing about it. It was 
evident that neither the reigning prince nor any of his sons 
was meant. So far was this from being the case that when 
the news reached Herod he was thrown into the utmost 
terror, for he and all the city understood that it must be the 
Messiah whose birth had been announced in the heavens. 
His own throne therefore, or at least his dynasty, was on 
the brink of ruin. What was he to do? Might not a bold 
stroke avert the danger yet? 

He called the Sanhedrim together, hoping that the learned 
men might tell from the study of the Scripture where the 
Messiah would be born. He was not disappointed, for, on 
the authority of the prophecies of Michah, they indicated 
Bethlehem as the appointed place. 

Herod, who believed as firmly as any one else in the truth 
of astrology, the authority of the prophets, and the interpreta- 
tion of the learned Scribes, had soon matured his treacher- 
ous and murderous plan. Secretly (for the affair had made 
only too much noise already) he summoned the magi into 
his presence and made the closest inquiries as to the time at 
which the}' had first seen the star, for fear that some acci- 
dent might prevent their return to Jerusalem with more defi- 
nite news. Then he urged them to go to Bethlehem, to 
search out the child without delay and without error, and 
bring back word to him. He would then go himself, he said, 
and bow down in homage before the child whom so great a 
future awaited. The magi, suspecting nothing, made the 
required promise, and went on their way. According to the 
usual custom of the East the}' travelled by night. What 
was their surprise and delight to see the star once more shin- 
ing in the sky ! They had not seen it since they had left 
their own country. And now, wonderful to say, it went be- 
fore them from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, the surest guide 
that they could have, and when they reached the little city 
it stood still over one of the houses there ! They did not 
aeed to ask for any further information now ! They had 
found what they were seeking. They knocked at the door, 
and when they entered Joseph's house, there was the baby 
lying on its mother's breast ! In a transport of joy and rev- 
erence they threw themselves upon the ground, and paid 



70 WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. 

such homage as it was customary in those districts to render 
to a king ; and, since it was not usual to enter into the royal 
presence empty-handed, they produced the little caskets of 
treasure that the} T had brought with them, and made their 
offerings of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 

The object of their journey was accomplished. But it was 
itself the cause of the utmost danger to the life of the child. 
Providence, however, did not sleep. In a dream the magi 
received the divine command not to return by Jerusalem or 
tell Herod the result of their search ; and in obedience to 
this injunction the} T returned b} T another wa} T to their father- 
land. In itself this could only delay for a time the danger 
which it could not avert ; but in the ver} T night of their de- 
parture, as Joseph slept, he once more saw a messenger 
from heaven, who warned him of the wicked purposes of the 
king, and summoned him to rise at once and flee with all 
haste to Egypt with the little Jesus and Mary. There he 
could remain for the present in safety from the tyrant. 
There was no time to lose. Joseph rose from his bed, and 
the " hoi}' family" set out at once upon their flight. 

Meanwhile Herod awaited the return of the magi in vain. 
Was it possible that they were mocking him ? Maddened by 
his disappointment, he despatched a band of soldiers to 
Bethlehem, with the ghastly order to butcher all the baby 
boys of two 3 T ears old and under in the town itself and the 
surrounding houses or huts. He congratulated himself on 
having already discovered, from the calculations of the as- 
trologers, that the child must have entered upon his second 
year, and he was determined to make sure of the death of so 
dangerous a rival. Not a single male child must be spared, 
and the murderers must close their ears against the cries of the 
mothers' anguish. . . . 

This was one of the last- deeds of Herod's reign. Not 
long afterwards he breathed his last, in frightful agonies, at 
the age of seventy. Once again an angel of God visited 
Joseph, now in Egypt, in a dream, and told him that thp 
wretch who had sought to kill his foster-child was dead, and 
that he might now return with his family to his native land. 
Obedient now as alwajs, he set out upon his journey at once, 
taking his wife and the boy with him. He intended, of 
course, to return to his own house in Bethlehem ; but on his 
way thither he heard that Archelaus had succeeded his father 
in the government of Judaea. As this prince was said to 
rival Herod himself in cruelty and superstition, Joseph per- 



WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. 71 

ceived that he would not be safe in his old abode. He was 
at a loss how to act ; but now, as so often before, wisdom 
came to him b} T night, for he was directed in a vision from 
God to go to Lower Galilee, which lay in the district of 
Herod Antipas ; and there he settled down in the lovely 
little ctty of Nazareth. 

The brow of many a theologian has been bent over this 
narrative ! For as long as people believed in the miraculous 
inspiration of the Hory Scriptures, of course the} T accepted 
every page as literally true, and thought that there could not 
be any contradiction between the different accounts or repre- 
sentations of Scripture. The worst of all such pre-conceived 
ideas is that the}' compel those who hold them to do violence 
to their own sense of truth. For when these so-called reli- 
gious prejudices come into play, people are afraid to call 
things by their right names, and without knowing it them- 
selves become guitty of all kinds of evasive and arbitrary 
practices ; for what would be thought quite unjustifiable in 
any other cause is here considered a dut} T , inasmuch as it is 
supposed to tend toward the maintenance of faith and the 
glory of God ! Those who speak out simply and clearly what 
they feel and see to be the truth are set down as proud, 
impious, and unbelieving. Let us see to it that we are never 
shaken in the sacred conviction that God cannot possibly be 
served by any thing against wmich our conscience protests ' 
For it is not in the traditional articles of faith, but in the 
sense of truth and the sense of duty, which are both of them 
planted in our bosoms by nature, and can both be trained 
and strengthened, — it is there that God reveals himself 
to us. 

The divine revelations or angelic visions during sleep, of 
which such prodigal use is made in this narrative, are in 
themselves enough to prevent our believing it. But in former 
times they seemed to present no difficulty. No more was 
an} T one disturbed by the fact that Joseph, who is kept 
entirely in the background in the third Gospel, is quite a 
prominent figure in the first. I ma} T take this opportunity 
of remarking that Joseph, who is scarcely noticed again in 
any of the Gospels, came to be highly honored by the Chris- 
tians of later centuries, and was glorified with especial zeal 
and enthusiasm in the East. The da} r of his death, which was 
fixed on the 20th of July, was celebrated with great splendor. 
In the fifth century a "History of Joseph the Carpenter" 



72 WISE MEF FROM THE EAST. 

was composed expressly for use on this occasion. It is 
still preserved among our Apocryphal Gospels, and repre- 
sents Jesus as describing to his disciples the life and still 
more the death of his foster-father. The Catholic Church 
has enrolled him among the saints, records a host of miracles 
performed on his behalf, and honors him with the title of 
" Confessor and Patriarch." Indeed, a few years ago Pope 
Pius IX. commended the Church, under its trying circum- 
stances, to St. Joseph's special protection. 

But to return to our stor} r and the difficulties that it pre- 
sents. The task which the commentators thought it their 
duty to undertake in the interests of faith was three-fold. 
In the first place they had to reconcile Matthew and Luke. 
To take a single instance : At what point in the third Gos- 
pel were the visit of the magi and the flight to Egypt to be 
inserted ? Not after the presentation in the temple ; for 
immediately after that event Joseph and Mary went back to 
their home in Nazareth, and were therefore no longer to be 
found in Bethlehem. And yet not before ; for the child was 
more than a } r ear old at the visit of the magi, and the mur- 
derous plans of Herod would have made a subsequent pre- 
sentation in the temple impossible. The fact is that there 
is no room at all for these events in the narrative of Luke, 
which represents the birth of the Messiah as having been 
alread} r proclaimed widely enough by the shepherds and by 
Simeon and Anna. The second difficulty refers to this won- 
derful star. In ancient times the Jews, like other peoples, 
might very well believe that there was some immediate con- 
nection between the stars and the life of man, — an idea 
which we still preserve in the forms of speech, that so and so 
was born under a lucky or under an evil star. They might 
therefore suppose that the birth of great men, such as Abra- 
ham for instance, was announced in the heavens. In our 
century however, if not before, all serious belief in astrology 
has ceased, and it would be regarded as an act of the gross- 
est superstition for any one to have his horoscope drawn ; 
for the course, the appearance, and the disappearance of the 
heavenly bodies have been long determined with mathemati- 
cal precision by science. But if this is the case, it is impos- 
sible that the magi could have been apprised of the birth of 
the great King of the Jews by the rise of a new star. And 
yet the commentators, in their efforts to rescue the credit of 
this story, have searched the heavens with the utmost dili- 
gence, have talked of the conjunction of two planets, and 



WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. 73 

have even called to their aid a certain cornet that was 
observed in China ! But, unfortunately, the phenomenon 
that Matthew describes is very different from either a con- 
junction or a comet. And however much these harmonizers 
might congratulate themselves on their discovery, one does 
not quite see how a star in the heavens could point out the 
way from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, advance in front of the 
travellers, and stand still over one particular house ! This is 
so utterly absurd that it cannot even be accounted for as an 
optical delusion. The third point of difficulty is presented 
by the slaughter of the innocents. Not, indeed, that Herod 
was incapable of such a hideous crime, but the hopeless stu- 
pidhy with which he is represented as having gone to work 
is quite inconsistent with his well-known craftiness. He 
summons the magi secretly, as if on purpose to arouse their 
suspicions ; he is afraid that they will not return, and yet 
sends no one to observe them ; he gives orders, in his sense- 
less fury, for a wholesale massacre, when he could easily 
have discovered, in so small a place, the particular house 
and child that had been honored by so distinguished a visit ; 
he does not even so much as inquire whether the child he is 
looking for, and against whom his orders are directed, ma} T 
not have escaped already. Moreover, Josephus, who gives 
us a minute account of the atrocities perpetrated by Herod 
up to the veiy last moments of his life, does not say a single 
word about .this unheard of crime, which must have been so 
notorious. Surely he must have known of it, and must have 
mentioned it, had it ever been committed ! 

I will notdekry } t ou by enumerating the devices, sometimes 
very ingenious but always futile, by which ancient and mod- 
ern commentators have endeavored to escape these difficul- 
ties. You must have alread} T discovered the true character 
of this scene. The Christians drew it in accordance with 
the indications they believed to be contained in the Old Tes- 
tament, under the form of direct prophecies or foreshadowing 
t}'pes. The writer of the legend of Balaam x had sung of 
"a star that rises from Jacob," by which he meant a glo- 
rious monarch, and, specifically, Jeroboam II. But in later 
times his words were taken to mean that the coming of the 
Messiah would be heralded by a star. Thus in the reign of 
the Emperor Hadrian, a hundred years after the death of 
Jesus, a certain Jew who gave himself out as the Messiah 

1 Numbers xxiv. 17. See vol. ii. chap, xviii. p. 199. 

VOL. III. 4 



74 WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. 

and headed the last great insurrection of his eountiyrnen, 
assumed the name of Bar-Coehbah, — " son of a star." As 
recently as in the fifteenth century of our era, a Jewish 
scholar named Abarbanel (a.d. 1463) concluded that the 
birth of the Messiah was close at hand, because there was a 
conjunction of two planets in the sign of the Zodiac called 
the Fishes (Pisces), which Abarbanel held to be closely 
connected with the fates of Israel ! At the birth of Moses, 
he says, the same phenomenon occurred. Again, the Chris- 
tians read in the Prophet and the Psalmist 1 that the princes 
of the heathen would come to the light of Israel with pres- 
ents of gold and frankincense, and bow down in reverence 
before the great King. If Jesus was the Christ, then all 
this must have been fulfilled in him. 

But there was more. Antiquity in general delighted in 
representing great men, such as Romulus, Cyrus, and many 
more, as having been threatened in their childhood b} T fearful 
dangers. This served to bring into clear relief both the lofty 
significance of their future lives and the special protection of 
the deity who watched over them. The Christians were fa- 
miliar with a striking example of this kind of legend in the 
stoiyof Moses. As Josephus tells the tale, 2 his life, together 
with that of all the male infants of about his age, was threat- 
ened b} T Pharaoh on account of the prediction of a priest that 
; 'at that time a child should be born among the Israelites 
who should humble Egypt and exalt his own people." Later 
on, again, he had to fly from the court for his life. And in- 
asmuch as Moses, the mediator of the Old Covenant, is con- 
stantly brought into comparison with Jesus as the mediator 
of the New, 3 it followed that the experiences of the former 
were to be regarded as a foreshadowing type of the lot of the 
latter. Jesus, no less than Moses, must be "the child of 
Providence." Indeed, the writer of the narrative in the sec- 
ond chapter of Matthew had his attention so closely fixed 
upon Moses that he puts into the mouth of the angel who 
addresses Joseph the very words which Yahweh was said to 
have uttered to Moses. 1 Even in later times the Church had 
not forgotten the meaning of the slaughter of the innocents 
of Bethlehem. Thus Prudentius, a poet of the fourth century, 
sang in his " Hymn for Epiphany" : — 

i Isaiah xlix. 7, lx. 3-10; Psalm lxxii. 10, 11. 2 See vol. ii. p 2*0 

8 E.g. Hebrews iii. 1-6, viii., ix.; 2 Corinthians iii. &c. 
* Compare Matthew ii. 20 with Exodus iv. 19. 



WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. 75 

What profit on that fatal day ? 

What gain from Herod's deed of dread ? 

Alone among the crowd of dead 
In safety Christ is borne away! 



So from the Avicked Pharaoh's face 
Escaped, despite the fell decree, 
Type of the Christ that was to be, 

Moses, restorer of his race ! 



So, too, the Old Testament was supposed to indicate that the 
Christ must retire to Egypt in order to come back again. 
For Israel itself, often called God's sow, or God's first-born? 
was the type of the Messiah, the Son of God. So the Christ 
too, like Israel, must have been in Egypt, and what was 
written of Israel, " Out of Eg} r pt have I called my son," ' 2 must 
actually apply to Jesus also. Lastly, the wail of sorrow raised 
over the inhabitants of Judah carried away in captivit}^ to 
Babylon was actually forced into a prophec}' of the murder 
at Bethlehem. 8 

But the whole scene, while t} T pifying the fulfilment in Jesus 
of the hope of the fathers, prefigured in the histeuy and ora- 
cles of Israel and the lives of its heroes, is also a prophetic 
forecast of the fate of Jesus himself, of the reception which 
his gospel would meet, and the significance of his person to 
the world. The sword hangs over him, even as a child, by a 
silken thread, and so will dangers ever surround him on ail 
sides ; so will the powers of the world ever conspire against 
his flock. But as God's eye keeps watch over the helpless 
babe, so shall no one lay a hand on him until his hour is come ; 4 
so shall Providence watch over the Church of Christ. Op- 
posed to these distinguished heathen who come from distant 
lands to bow down before Jesus stands Herod, with Jerusa- 
lem's citizens, her priests and her Scribes, at his side, 5 shrink- 
ing from no enormity in his attempt to crush the Christ. Even 
so shall the heathen, with their longing for salvation, their 
eagerness for the gospel, their faith and their reverence, stand 
out in sharpest contrast against the blind and stubborn hos- 
tility of the Jewish nation. These sages from the East who 
fall prostrate before the child are the first-fruits of the count- 
less host who shall bend the knee in his name, 6 so that the 

1 Exodus iv. 22; Jeremiah xxxi. 9. 2 Hosea xi. 1. 

* Matthew ii. 17, 18. Compare Jeremiah xxxi. 15. 

A Join vii. 30, viii. 20. & Matthew ii. 3, 4. 6 Philippians ii. 10. 



76 WISE MEN FROM THE EAST, 

very cradle of Jesus prophesies of the subjection of all tne 
heathen world to him. 

It is upon this last point that the tradition of the Church 
has laid the greatest stress. As if instinctively feeling that 
the story was a legend, and might therefore be treated with 
perfect freedom, it has not exactly elaborated the narrative of 
Matthew, but has modified it and made it more definite. The 
magi were changed, in accordance with a passage in the Old 
Testament, 1 into kings, and their number fixed at three, to 
correspond with the three presents ; their names were said to 
be Melchior, Caspar, and Balthazar, and each was made the 
representative of one of the three quarters of the world known 
to the ancients. The youngest of them, as the representative 
of Africa, was always represented as a Moor. In their gifts, 
too, some of the church-Fathers, even as early as the third 
century, find a symbolical significance. Jesus received the 
gold as king, the frankincense as God, and the myrrh as man, 
in anticipation of his martyr's death. Thus the poet Juven- 
cus (about a.d. 300) says in a line of his Gospel Histoiy : — 

" Gold, frankincense, and myrrh, to the King, the God, the Man! " 

There is certainly something in the whole story that stim- 
ulates the curiosity and leaves the imagination free to work. 
The star is described to us by one of the Apostolic Fathers 2 
as " excelling all the stars in brilliance, of indescribable glory, 
and astonishing every one by its novelty. All the other 
heavenly bodies, with the sun and moon, made a circle round 
it, but it poured its light over them all." In the course of time 
it was related that the magi came from Persia to Bethlehem 
in consequence of the predictions of Zoroaster, the founder 
of their religion, that they were led to the place by an angel in 
the form of a star, and received a gift from Mary, which they 
gratefully accepted in return for their presents. This gift 
was one of the cloths in which the child had been swaddled ; 
and when they came back to their own country they kindled 
a fire (the Persians reverence fire as divine) and threw the 
cloth into it. But it would not burn, so they preserved it with 
the utmost reverence among their treasures. 

Two Apociyphal Gospels, that of the " Infancy of the Re- 
deemer," in use among the Nestorians of Syria, in which the 
story just given occurs, and the Latin ' ' Histoiy of Mary's Birth 
and the Childhood of the Redeemer," are particularly full in 

i Psalm lxxii. 10; Isaiah xlix. 7. 2 See p. 22. 



WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. 77 

their accounts of the journey to Egypt and the sojourn there. 
The " Infancy" makes it three years long, whereas the " His- 
tory of Joseph " only makes it one 3 T ear. All sorts of won- 
ders take place, such as the healing of a demoniac boy, of 
two women possessed by devils, of a deaf and cl/imb bride, of 
a leprous girl, a leprous prince, and a young man who had 
been turned into a mule. At the arrival of Jesus in Egypt 
the idols fall prostrate, 1 robbers fly from him, dragons, lions, 
and panthers do homage to him. 

Would you like to have a specimen of this literature? 
Here is one from the Gospel of "Mary's Birth and the Child- 
hood of the Redeemer : " — 

" On the third day of their journey from Bethlehem, Mary 
was exhausted by the heat of the sun in the wilderness. 
Seeing a tree she said to Joseph, ' Let us rest ourselves in 
its shadow.' Joseph led her to the spot at once, and helped 
her to get down from the ass. When she had seated herself 
she looked up into the foliage of the palm, which was laden 
with fruit, and said to Joseph, ' I should so like to taste the 
fruit, if only I could.' But Joseph answered, ' How can you 
think of such a thing? You see yourself how high up the 
branches are. No ! what I'm concerned about is the water. 
We have used up all our store, and we shall not have another 
chance of filling the skins and refreshing ourselves.' 

"Then the child Jesus, sitting on the lap of his mother 
the Virgin Mary, said with a joyous countenance, ' Bow 
down your branches, O tree, and refresh my mother with 
your fruit ! ' Immediately the tree bowed down its head to 
Mary's feet, and they all of them took of its fruit and ate 
their fill. Still the tree bowed down, waiting the command 
of Jesus to rise up again. And Jesus said, ' Palm-tree, rise 
up, be strong, and share the lot of the trees that are in the 
paradise of my Father ! But open out from your roots a 
spring that is hidden in the ground, that water may flow 
out of it to refresh us.' Immediately the tree rose up, and 
streams of pure, cold, beautiful water poured from its roots. 
Then the}' rejoiced and refreshed themselves completely both 
man and beast, and they thanked God. 

" The next day, when they set out on their journey again, 
Jesus turned to the tree and said, ' Palm-tree ! it is my will 
that one of your branches be transplanted into my Father's 
paradise by one of my angels. And this is the blessing I 
pronounce on you : To all who have conqueied in the good 
1 Compare Isaiah xix. 1. 



78 WISE MEN FROM THE EAST. 

fight it shall be said : You have reached the palm of 
victory.' 

" Hardly had he uttered the words, when behold ! an angel 
of the Lord appeared, standing above the tree, and took one 
of its branches and flew with it up into heaven. And Joseph 
and Mary were overcome with deadly fear ; but Jesus said, 
1 Why do you fear ? Know 3-011 not that this palm-branch, 
which I have had taken to paradise, shall be a joy to all the 
saints, even as it has been a joy to you in this wilderness ? ' " 

But what shall we say to the Eg^yptian village of Matarea, 
in which they still show you a sycamore tree that is said to 
have opened when Mary and Jesus were pursued b}- robbers ! 
It took them in, and then closed up again. When the rob- 
bers were out of sight it split in two once more, and remained 
in that condition until the}-ear 1656 a.d., when a great piece 
of the trunk fell off. 

We ma} T mention here that the Talmud also makes Jesus 
go to Egypt, not it would seem in imitation of our narrative, 
but because it ascribes skill in sorceiy to him, and Egypt 
was regarded as the land of sorcerers. 

It is hardly necessaiy to contrast the simplicit}', the 
beaut}', and the deep significance which mark the legend of 
Matthew with these senseless stories from the Apociwphal 
books. The difference must strike ever}- one. 

A word in conclusion on the well-known feast of Epiph- 
any, or Twelfth Night, sometimes called on the continent 
" The feast of the Three Kings," which is held on January 6. 
Epiphany means the appearance or manifestation of a deity. 
The feast was instituted at an early period in the Eastern 
Church in commemoration of the baptism of Jesus, because 
he was supposed to have assumed his divine dignity on that 
occasion. 1 Towards the end of the third centur}- the feast 
began to be celebrated in other quarters in commemoration 
both of the baptism of Jesus, when he was made known to 
the world and appeared in public, 2 and of his birth. When, 
in the course of time, December 25 was set aside 3 to com- 
memorate this last event, Epiphany was still consecrated in 
the East to the baptism of Jesus, but in the West it was set 
apart to commemorate the visit of the Wise Men of the East, 
"the revelation of Christ as the redeemer to the heathen 
world." This is another proof that the Church had not for- 
gotten the meaning of the legend in Matthew. 

1 See pp. 40, 41. 2 See pp. 36, 37, 43. 3 See p 66. 



JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 7# 

Chapter VI. 

JESUS IN THE TEMPLE AT THE AGE OF TWELVE. 

Lcke II. 40-52. 

IT always wakes our keenest interest to know how a great 
man was brought up and educated, to see how from a 
helpless little creature, in no wa}' distinguished from the 
ordinary children of men, he raised himself step b} r step to 
the height from which he commands such universal admira- 
tion ; to notice the special circumstances that have contributed 
to develop his gifts and powers, and to bring out his noble 
character in all its strength. From this point of view even 
the most trilling details acquire a peculiar interest. But 
seldom indeed are we permitted to witness this fascinating 
spectacle. As a rule the materials are very insufficient, and 
imagination has to fill in man}' a gap that even the most 
careful research has left. 

Nothing could be more natural than the wish to learn 
something of the childhood and 3'outh of Jesus. For in his 
case more than in any other we long for accurate information 
as to the circle in which he grew up, the circumstances by 
which he was surrounded, and which helped to make him so 
great, so unique among men ; in short, to hear in what way 
and under what influences his character, hie intellect, and his 
affections were developed. Where his actual histoiy opens, 
and he emerges from obscurity and begins the work of his 
life, he stands before us fully equipped, his nianj'-sided 
nature already matured into that of a great, a noble, a 
mighty personality. Can we possibly succeed in penetrating 
here and there to the silent workings of his spirit, in gather- 
ing scattered traits to throw light on the circumstances of his 
bringing up, in tracing scattered indications of the course 
that w r as taken by his inner life, of the forces that were 
brought to bear upon him at a time when the mind is specially 
receptive, in discovering, at least to some extent, how and 
b}' what his glorious powers were so finely and so harmoni- 
ously developed? We know what he was, and we cannot 
help asking how he became what we know him to have been. 

With regard to this time of preparation, all our Gospels 
except that of Luke are profoundly silent. At the end of his 



80 JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 

account of the birth of Jesus, Luke gives us a general de- 
scription of his childhood in the words : " He grew up and 
waxed strong and was filled with wisdom ; and the grace of 
God was with him ; " and afterwards he thus describes his 
youth: "Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in 
favor with God and men." Between these notices he inserts 
an account of an event intended to bring out the great intel- 
lectual gifts and the earnest piet}' which distinguished Jesus 
even as a bo} T . The story runs as follows : — 

The parents of Jesus were accustomed to visit the City of 
the Temple every Passover. The Law commanded every 
male Israelite to appear before the face of Yahweh at each 
of the three great feasts ; 1 but since this injunction could 
hardly be carried out completely by those who lived at a dis- 
tance from Jerusalem, the most magnificent of Israel's festi- 
vals was generally selected as the occasion of the jourae} 7 to 
the temple. Women were not ordered by the Law to come 
up also, though some of the Rabbis thought their presence at 
the Passover desirable. But Mary's pious heart urged her to 
accompany her husband. On these journeys the pilgrims 
joined to make up caravans ; and on their way they raised 
their voices in sacred song, and their hearts were filled with 
the thoughts suggested by the festival. The stay at Jerusa- 
lem itself, which extended over eight days, was a time of deep 
and sacred joy. 

Of course, no little children would be taken on such a 
journey as that from Nazareth to the Holy City. But when 
Jesus was twelve years old he had sufficiently outgrown his 
childhood. The people of Eastern countries are grown up at 
a much earlier age than here ; and a boy of twelve was con- 
sidered b}< the Jews capable of taking part in all the practices 
of religion, and was, therefore, called "a son of the Law." 
Jesus, then, was to accompany his parents on their journey 
for the first time in his life. What an event it was for him ! 
His high-wrought expectations were not disappointed. The 
very journey was so glorious ; the magnificence of the temple 
so imposing ; Jerusalem at such a time so grand and so full 
of life ; the Passover so splendid ! Everywhere the religious 
wants of the youthful Israelite's heart found satisfaction, and 
the impressions he received could never be forgotten. 

The days flew past, and Joseph and Mary set out upon 
their homeward journey. But Jesus sta} 7 ed behind, unknown 
to them. When they missed him at the moment of their do- 

J Exodus xxiii. 17; and elsewhere. 



JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 81 

pru'ture, the}' thought he must have started already with some 
other company of pilgrims from Nazareth, that might have 
left Jerusalem a tew hours before. So they hastened on their 
journey that day, in hopes of overtaking the friends or rela- 
tives with whom the}' expected to find their son. But when 
they reached the first station at Shiloh, and came up with the 
caravan of the Nazarenes, they sought and inquired for the boy 
in vain. No one had seen him or knew where lie was. Who 
can describe the feelings of the anxious parents? What could 
have become of him ? How he would wander about in that 
huge city, in despair at not finding his parents ! He was still 
so young, and Jerusalem was so great ! They hurried back 
with the utmost speed. They made inquiries of the host, 
under whose roof they had spent the preceding week ; but he 
could tell them nothing of the boy. They applied to every 
one they knew, but all in vain ; for there was no one who 
could give them any news. They traversed the city in every 
direction, and hour by hour their distress increased. At their 
wits' end, after three days' search, they finally ascend the 
mount of the temple, pass through the outer buildings of the 
sanctuary, and to their inexpressible relief they see him in a 
lecture-room, or in the synagogue of the temple, sitting among 
the Rabbis ! Thank God that they have found him ! But 
how came he there ? And what a child he is ! He does not 
show the smallest sign of anxiety or fear. He seems com- 
pletely at home amid his surroundings. His glowing cheek 
and kindling eye speak to the intensity of his interest. He 
catches every word that falls from the teachers, and hangs 
upou their lips as they argue together and discuss the knotty 
questions of the Law. And he himself, too simple-minded 
to be over-diflident, sometimes puts questions to them, for the 
free intercourse then customary between the teachers and the 
taught made it easy for him to do so ; and when they asked 
him questions in their turn, his answers showed such grasp 
and penetration that all around were lost in amazement at his 
knowledge of religious things, and the early development of 
such wonderful powers. 

Joseph and Mary looked on in amazement, and then made 
their way through the crowd that yielded them a passage, 
wondering to see them press into the inner circle. Did the 
boy fly to them as soon as he perceived their presence ? Far 
from it ! Mary, as she threw her arms about him and pressed 
a mother's kiss upon his forehead, could not restrain the gen- 
tle reproof: "My child, why have you caused us all this 

4* 



82 JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 

pain? Your father and I have been seeking you throughout 
the city, with almost broken hearts ! " But he answered 
quietly, as one who feels that his answer leaves no room for 
blame : " But, mother, why did you not come straight to the 
temple ? Did you not know that I must be in my heavenly 
Father's house ? " 1 

They did not understand his words. The child had out- 
grown his parents. But, at any rate, they had found the 
dear one they had lost ; and, without thinking of opposing 
them, without so much as asking leave to stay a little longer 
in the plaoe he found so fascinating, Jesus followed them. 
Then they began their homeward journey in earnest ; and 
neither then nor in after years as long as he remained 
beneath his parents' roof, did he ever fail in respect or obe- 
dience, or give them the smallest cause to complain of him. 
This event made a deep impression, especially upon Mar}'. 
When she thought it all over afterwards, she felt that some 
great destiny must surely be in store for her son. 

No one can say that this story is impossible. The remark- 
able and early development of intellectual and religious power 
it is meant to illustrate is far from improbable. Similar traits 
have been observed in the childhood of far less might}' spirits 
than that of Jesus, and the Israelitish boys were well in- 
structed in the Law. To take a single instance : Josephus 
tells us that when he himself was about fourteen years old 
his diligence was universally commended, and that the high 
priests and chief men of Jerusalem constantly came to him 
for exact information and guidance in cases of difficulty ! 
This is doubtless an exaggeration, and a specimen of the 
historian's ridiculous vanity (excessive modesty was never 
one of his failings), but it shows at least that it was con- 
sidered nothing unnatural for a mere boy to be a kind of 
authority on points of learning. Similar stories are told by 
other contemporaneous authorities of boys ol ten, thirteen, 
and fourteen. 

But, on further reflection, all sorts of difficulties occur to 
us, and throw great doubt upon the story. We can hardly 
understand the parents of Jesus being so careless as to set 
off without exactly knowing where he was ; for the Evangelist 
evidently does not mean to imply an}' intentional disobedience 
on his part. And how unnatural is the conduct of the boy 
towards his parents ! for Mary says they have been looking 
for him for "three days," and if this does not include the 

1 After an amended version. 



JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 83 

journej' to and from Shiloh, it must have been five da} r s since 
he had seen them, and .yet he evinces no delight when they 
meet again ! And where had he been all the time? Not at 
his parents' former lodgings, or with acquaintances, for in that 
case Joseph and Mary would have heard of him at once ; not 
with any true friends, or the}' would have taken care to send 
him after his parents in suitable company. There are other 
difficulties, too. We find him in the midst of the Scribes. 
There is some ambiguit}- in the expression. Did he come to 
them as a pupil, or as one of themselves ? And we are struck 
at once b} T the prominence assigned to Mary, in this as in the 
earlier stories of Luke, 1 whereas in realit}' the father's au- 
thorit3 T was every thing among the Jews. Nor should we 
expect Jesus, in his thirteenth } T ear, to speak of the temple as 
the house of his Father. 

The story is hardly to be reconciled with the history of the 
birth of Jesus, 2 but of course that is nothing against it. It 
is somewhat suspicious, however, that the childhood of Jesus 
should be described in the same words as that of John. 3 But 
our doubts rise higher when we begin to ask whence Luke, 
or his authority, derived the story. We cannot help sus- 
pecting that here, too, the desire to lift the veil that hung 
over the youth of Jesus made the later Christians fly to the 
traditions concerning the heroes of the Old Testament. Not 
to speak of the wonders reported of Moses, it is obvious that 
Samuel has served in some measure as the model for the 
story. In almost the words that Luke uses of Jesus it is 
said of Samuel : " He increased and grew, and was in favor 
with the Lord and with men." Samuel's mother, too, comes 
up to the sanctuary every year, and is a more prominent fig- 
ure than her husband, 4 just as Maiy is here. 5 And, lastly, 
we know from Josephus that Samuel was supposed iL to have 
completed his twelfth year " when he experienced his pro- 
phetic call. 6 

We will not pronounce airy very decided opinion, however. 
The stoiy certainly rises in our estimation when we compare 
it with the later elaborations of the Apociyphal Gospels. In 
that of Thomas we are told that, after the party had started, 
Jesus secretly returned to Jerusalem ; that he silenced the 
elders and the teachers of the people by his questions ; that 
he himself expounded the most important parts of the Law 
and the similitudes of the Prophets ; and that the Scribes 

1 See p. 72. 2 See pp. 56-58. 3 Compare Luke ii. 40 with i. 80. 

4 1 Samuel ii. 26, i. 21 ft'., ii. 19. 5 g ee p . 55. 6 1 Samuel iii. 



84 JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 

and Pharisees congratulated Mary on being blessed with a 
child who had given such an unexampled proof of glorious 
virtue and wisdom. In the Gospel of the " Infancy of the 
Redeemer " we learn that Jesus disputed with the Rabbis as to 
the descent of the Messiah, 1 expounded the secrets of the 
Law and Prophets, explained to an astrologer and a student 
of physical science the secrets of their studies, — things 
which no created intellect had ever traced out, understood, 
or penetrated, — and thereby excited their wonder and even 
their adoration. 

Indeed these G-ospels, together with that of " Maiy's Birth 
and the Childhood of the Redeemer," are full of extraordinary 
stories about the first twelve years of the life of Jesus. Most 
of them are foolish and some of them offensive stories : but 
we must not pass them by wholly unnoticed. One of them 
is this : That Jesus was once plaj'ing with companions of 
his own age, and the} T were all making cla} T animals, such as 
donkeys, cattle, and birds. Each of them boasted of his 
own productions, and said the} T were better than those of his 
companions. Then Jesus said to them, " I shall command 
the animals that I have made to walk about." The others 
said, mockingly, "Then } r ou 're the Creator's own son, are 
you?" But Jesus told his clay animals to walk or fly, to eat 
or to drink, and whatever he told them they did. When the 
children told their parents what had happened, their fathers 
warned them never to play with Jesus again, and to avoid 
his company ; " for," said they, u he is a sorcerer." Another 
time his playfellows had hidden in an oven, and the women 
standing in front of the house, when questioned b} T Jesus, 
said that there were not smy children there : there were only 
some little three-} T ear old goats in the oven. Upon this 
Jesus really turned the bo} x s into goats, and they came jump- 
ing out ! But at the repeated prayers of the women he pres- 
ently restored the children to their proper shapes again. 
One day as he was playing about with some other boys he 
passed by the workshop of a certain dyer of the name of 
Salem. A great many pieces of cloth belonging to different 
inhabitants of the place were lying there ready to be dyed in 
various colors. But when there was no one in the shop, 
Jesus ran in and threw all the pieces of cloth into the same 
dyeing pot. Just at that moment Salem came back, and see- 
ing what had happened burst into cries of anger, and ex- 
claimed indignantly to Jesus : ' ' What have you been doing, 
1 From Matthew xxii. 41-46. 



jesus in the temple. 85 

you son of Mary ? See what mischief you. have done to me 
and my fellow-citizens ! for each of them wants the color that 
suits his taste, and here have you spoiled them all ! " But the 
boy answered ! "I will change the color of every piece of 
cloth that you want changed," and began to pull them one 
after another out of the pot ; and behold ! every one was just 
the color that the d}'er wanted. When the Jews saw this 
miracle they glorified God. 

Sometimes he had to help in the work of the house. For 
instance, once his mother sent him to draw water from the 
well. But when he had filled the pitcher and was drawing it 
up (or, according to another tradition, as he was carrying it 
through the crowd) it broke. Jesus instantly spread out his 
handkerchief (or his cloak), caught the water in it, and 
brought it to his mother. At this time he was six years old. 
In the month of October, when he was eight years old, his 
father went to sow his land with wheat, and Jesus went with 
him and sowed one single grain of wheat. Six months after- 
wards he reaped and threshed out the produce, and the grail? 
of wheat had yielded a hundred homers (five hundred or a 
thousand bushels) , which he distributed among the poor of 
the village. Sometimes he went with his father to work ; 
and when Joseph, " who was rather a poor carpenter," had 
made any thing too long or too short, or too broad or too 
narrow, Jesus had only to put out his hand, and every thing 
was as it should be. For instance, when Joseph had made 
one of the legs of a couch for a rich man too short, Jesus 
stretched it out ; and when the throne for the king at Jerusa- 
lem, at which Joseph had been working for two years, turned 
out to be short of the required dimensions by two spans each 
waj r , Jesus set it right. 

He went to school under several masters, and astounded 
or enraged them all by his wonderful abilit}\ Of course he 
would not condescend to be taught by any one. He cursed 
one master for striking him, and the teacher fell powerless 
upon the ground. Another, who had lifted his hand to strike 
him, was maimed and died. 

He performed all manner of healings of the sick and rais- 
ings of the dead, and was especially active in restoring those 
that had been bitten by poisonous snakes ; among others his 
father Joseph, and his brother James. The latter had met 
with the accident when sent to gather wood. Another time 
Jesus and his companions were playing at being kings. 
Jesus was the king, and the others had spread their clothes 



86 JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 

upon the ground foi him to sit upon, and had woven a crown 
of flowers to set upon his head. They themselves stood at 
his right and left, like the body-guard that surrounds a king. 
Whenever any one passed, the children dragged them to the 
throne, and said, " Come here and do. homage to our king, 
and then you shall have a prosperous journe}'." B} T and by 
some people passed who were carrying a sick child with 
them. He had been to a mountain to gather wood, and 
there he had found a partridge's nest ; but when he stretched 
out his hand to take the eggs he was bitten by a snake. He 
was now at the very point of death, and his friends were car- 
ding him home. But when they came to the place where 
Jesus was playing, the children compelled them, in spite of 
their sorrow and in spite of their resistance, to approach the 
little king. As soon as Jesus heard what had happened he 
said to his companions, "Let us go and kill the snake." 
The parents, sorely against their will, were compelled to go 
with them. When Jesus ordered the snake to come out 
of its hiding place it obeyed him, and sucked the poison 
out of the wound again. Then Jesus cursed it, and it 
burst asunder, but the child got well again. On his be- 
ginning to cry, Jesus said, " Stop crying, for }'ou will soon 
be my disciple." This bo} T was afterwards the Apostle, 
Simon the Canaanite. 

This story shows a desire to bring into contact with Jesus, 
while he was still a boy, the people who were afterwards to be 
connected with him ; and there are other tales of his childhood 
due to the same tendency. The son of Annas is cursed and 
dies, because when Jesus is making mud sparrows on the 
Sabbath he finds fault with him and spoils his play. Judas 
Iscariot is possessed by Satan when a child, and bites every 
one who comes near him, or even himself if he can get at no 
one else. His mother brings him to Mary to be cured, and 
when he is seated b}' the child Jesus, Satan falls upon him 
again and he bites Jesus in his right side ; but at that very 
moment Satan rushes out of him in the form of a mad dog. 
This Judas afterwards betrayed his master, and the side which 
he had bitten was pierced by a Jewish lance. 

Once when Jesus was coming home in the evening with 
Joseph a boy ran against him and knocked him down. Then 
the lord Jesus said to him, " As you have struck against me 
so shall you fall and never rise again." And that same hour 
the child fell down and died. On different occasions Jesus 
restored a dried fish to life, went into the den of a lioness, 



JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 87 

passed dry-footed lb rough the Jordan, whose waters parted for 
him, and did many other wonders. 

Bat this is quite enough ! No one will deny that these 
stories are absurd and often repulsive. But we have thought 
it worth while to notice them for several reasons. In the 
first place there is a painful interest, from a historical point of 
view, in seeing how Christian faith degenerated in the ancient 
Church, and in what kind of literature thousands of Chris- 
tians, especially in the East, found delight and edification for 
centuries. Again, these stories show us the lengths to which 
invention could go, and the wild vagaries to which an un- 
bridled imagination might lead ; how little the true greatness 
of Jesus was kept in view, and how unnaturally the love of 
the marvellous distorted his image. And when once we have 
observed what such weaknesses ma}' lead to in their exagger- 
ated developments, we shall be very cautious and circumspect 
wherever the books of the New Testament itself betray the 
first beginnings of the same distortions and onesidedness ; 
such as love of the marvellous, superstitious misapprehension 
of Jesus disguised under the form of increased reverence for 
him, and the tendency to call in the help of the imagination 
to fill up the gaps of history. We shall, therefore, uncondi- 
tionally reject eveiy thing, even in our canonical Gospels, 
which contradicts Nature, or is inconsistent with the human 
ity of Jesus. 

There is yet another point of view from which these stories 
are not wholly without value. They give us a picture of Jesus 
playing with other children, going about with his brothers, 
helping in the house by fetching water, for instance, joining 
his father at his work, and so on. Thus they place him in 
real life and amid the surroundings of ordinary mortals. So. 
too, the healthy intellectual and emotional development of 
Jesus, his "increase in wisdom and in stature, and in favor 
with God and men," his obedience to his parents, and his 
early piety are the main points enforced by Luke in his two 
notices of the child Jesus and his story of the visit to the 
temple ; and these must lie at the foundation of every attempt 
to form a true idea of his early life. 

But what right have we to begin by laying down these two 
general facts, — that the earl}' life of Jesus was in every other 
respect of a very ordinary kind, but that he kept his soul 
wonderfully pure and his intellect wonderfully bright ? Our 
knowledge of his future life gives us a perfect right to make 



8S JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 

both these assertions ; for, in the first place, his own family 
and his fellow- townsmen were utterly amazed at his appear- 
ance in public, and showed clearly enough that thej 7 had never 
seen any thing ver3 T remarkable in him, and had never ex- 
pected any thing particular from him ; and, in the next place, 
Jesus afterwards displayed not only such judgment and knowl- 
edge as he could only have attained by profound reflection 
and strict self-discipline, but also an entire absence of that 
sense of guilt which, considering his keen moral perceptions, 
he could not have failed to experience had he ever soiled his 
character or his imagination b} T any serious trespasses. 

But we need not rest in such general assertions. The ac- 
counts we have of his public life, and both the form and matter 
of his teaching, warrant us in drawing further conclusions as 
to what took place before he began his ministry. For when 
we listen to Jesus, the illustrations and parables which he 
uses serve, as it were, to lead us round through the scenes of 
his former life. Nothing escaped his observant e} T e, not even 
the most commonplace occurrences and occupations. Again, 
we are not without knowledge of the condition of his people 
and his country and the history of his times, and possess de- 
tailed descriptions of the natural scenery by which his home 
was surrounded. From all these materials we may, without 
quitting the ground of histoiy, restore to some extent the 
surroundings among which he lived and the circumstances 
under which he grew up. 

Galilee, in the southern portion of which Nazareth was 
situated, was a densely populated district of extraordinary 
fertility. Not a particle of ground was left idle. Pasturage, 
corn-land, and fruit trees were all excellent, and the produce 
in wheat and olives was perfectly amazing. The population 
is described bj' Josephus as so dense that (to take an example 
from our own country) on an area about equal to that of 
Northumberland there were ten times as many inhabitants 
and more than two hundred cities and villages, the least of 
which had a population of more than fifteen thousand ! Of 
course these figures must be exaggerated ; but when we re- 
member that the Jewish historian was writing of his own times 
and of the district of which he had himself been governor, and 
that there must have been many persons living who could, at 
least to some extent, have checked his statements, we shall 
feel that, though he may have exaggerated, he can hardly 
have invented his facts, and that the population of Galilee 
must really have been very great. This fertile and populous 



JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 89 

district, then, was marked b}' the constant stir of prosperous 
industry ; life and animation pervaded it from end to end, and 
the interchange and conflict of ideas formed a part of its gen- 
eral activity. The Galilaeans are described as industrious, 
animated, and open-hearted in character, faithful and stead- 
fast, warlike from their very infancy, easily excited, courage- 
ous and patriotic, and strict in their observance of the precepts 
of morality. Of course all these circumstances must have 
exercised a marked influence upon the development of the 
character of Jesus, but we shall not attempt to trace out and 
identif3 T the several features of this Galilsean type of character 
in him. We must not forget, however, that he was the wit- 
ness, in his youth, of events which must have contributed in 
no small degree on the one hand to quicken his enthusiasm 
for his people and his religion, and on the other to make him 
careful in his selection of means and averse to violence. 
While he was still a boy, when a census of Judaea and Sama- 
ria was taken b}* the governor of S}Tia, Judas the Galilsean * 
unfurled the banner of revolt, 2 with the cry : " No master for 
Israel but the Lord ! Tribute to Rome, or submission to the 
stranger, is treason to Him ! " 3 Would not the youthful Jesus 
burn with zeal for the sacred cause ? Would he not long that 
he were old enough to bear arms himself? Would he not pray 
that the Lord might send his blessing upon this hero of the 
faith as he had done on that other Judas called the Maccabee ? 
But in spite of his certain hope and his ardent prayers the 
legions of Rome annihilated the rebels after a hopeless strug- 
gle, and it may have been his bitter disappointment in the 
failure of Judas that first led Jesus, reading the will of God 
recorded in the event, to break with the material expectations 
of his people, and to look upon the kingdom of the Messiah 
chiefly as a spiritual deliverance which God would bring about 
in answer to the faith and prayers of his servants. 

The whole district of Galilee was a glorious region, in 
which the beauties of Nature displayed themselves in the 
richest alternations of hill, valle} T , and table-land ; and, since 
Nazareth enj'03-ed its full share of beauty, it would not be 
easy to over-estimate the effect of its magnificent natural 
scenery upon the heart of Jesus. The name of the city never 
once occurs in the Old Testament or the writings of Josephus, 
and it owes its fame entirely to Jesus. It still exists, with 
its three thousand inhabitants. It is built in terraces at the 

1 Acts v. 37. 2 See pp. 4-7. 

3 Compare Matthew xxii. 17 (Mark xii. 14; Luke xx. 22). 



DO JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 

foot and on the slope of one of the hills, among which it nes- 
tles, and is shut in by limestone rocks. The climate is ven 
health} 7 ; the houses, hidden behind rows of vines, cypresses, 
and fig-trees, interspersed with gardens and richly-cultivated 
fields, or palm and olive gardens, present a most attractive 
appearance. The neighborhood is lovely, and a short ascent 
leads up to a table-land, from which the prospect on all sides 
is indescribably beautiful. How often must Jesus have sat 
there in early life thinking of his people, of the times in 
which he lived, and of the kingdom of God i Travellers of 
different countries, who have visited these delightful valleys 
and fertile slopes, unite in describing the region as a perfect 
paradise. The well is still shown, which eighteen centuries 
ago was the life and joy of the little city, where every evening 
the women came, — Mary, of course, being one of them, — 
with their pitchers on their heads, to draw water and talk 
together. A narrow valley a few miles in length leads down 
from the city to the plain of Jezreel. 

Amidst scenes so lovely and so sublime did Jesus spend 
his youth. His parents had to support themselves by the 
labor of their hands ; 1 but the wants were so few, and the 
mode of life so simple in those regions, that poverty was not 
a burden. The family was rather a large one. There were 
five sons and several daughters,* 2 though we do not know how 
many. So, of course, they had all to work for their bread ; 
and we find it mentioned that Jesus himself worked as a 
carpenter. 3 A tradition, preserved by an old ecclesiastical 
Father, says that he used to make plows and ox-yokes. We 
know from other sources 4 that it was not considered any dis- 
grace to be a workman. On the contrary, the most cele- 
brated of the Rabbis all learned some handicraft by which to 
support themselves, for even those who held the position of 
teachers were not accustomed to receive money for their 
lessons. Thus we find different Rabbis mentioned as shoe- 
makers, tailors, bakers, incense-makers, builders, grave-dig- 
gers, land-surveyors, joiners, tanners, smiths, and what-not. 
One of them said : " It is good to combine the stud} 7 of the 
Law with some handicraft ; for the exercise of both together 
preserves a man from sin. But any stud}' which is pursued 
without a handicraft ministers to vanity and draws sin behind 
it." But to return to Jesus. Since his early years were not 
spent in ease and luxury, his circumstances early developed 

1 Matthew xiii. 55. 2 Matthew xiii. 55, 56 (Mark vi. 3). 

8 Mark vi. 3. 4 Compare Acts xviii. 3. 



JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 91 

his character, strengthened his will, and increased his knowl- 
edge of life. And his childhood was certainly a bright one ; 
for when he was a man he looked back with pleasure upon 
his childhood, — spoke of the natural simplicity, the openness 
to good impressions, and the innocence of that time of life, 1 
and recalled his childish games, 2 and all that he had seen 
within 3 and without 4 the house. 

Of Joseph we know nothing directly ; but since Jesus 
speaks of a father's love as a reflection of the love of God, 5 
since he could find no higher or more glorious name for God 
himself than that of Father, 6 we may safely conclude that 
Joseph was a faithful, careful, affectionate parent ; in a word, 
all that a father ought to be. Of the brothers of Jesus, we 
afterwards meet with James as a man of extraordinary 
strictness of principle, immovable determination, and great 
influence. 7 Judas, too, seems to have distinguished himself, 
for it was certainly not from their relationship to Jesus only, 
but also from their personal qualities, that the " brothers of 
the Lord " were regarded among the earliest communities as 
equal to the Apostles. 8 We ma}*, therefore, safely assume 
that the family circle in which Jesus grew up was far from 
an ordinaiy one, and that no moral stain ever cleaved to it. 
It is impossible to believe that there was ever an} T lack of 
religion, any of that meanness which often springs from 
stress of material circumstances, or that cringing which a 
hard and embittering discipline may produce, in the home at 
Nazareth. It deserves notice, too, that when the members 
of the family had gone upon their several ways in the world, 
the old bond of union still remained, and, in spite of their 
differences of opinion, they retained the same warm interest 
and care for one another's welfare. 9 

But Jesus differed greatly from the rest of the family in 
his disposition and his views of life, and he must often have 
sadly felt the want at home of that sympathetic and intelli- 
gent appreciation of his ideals for which his heart longed. 
And, in saying this, we refer more particularly to Mary. 
From the fact that most great men have owed a great deal 
to their mothers, it has been supposed that Jesus must have 
done so too ; and several hints contained in the legendary 

i Matthew xviii. 3, 10 xix. 14 (Mark ix. 36, x. 13-16 ; Luke xviii. 15-17). 
2 Matthew xi. 16, 17 (Luke vii. 32). 3 Matthew xiii. 33 ; Luke xv. 8, 9, &c. 
4 Matthew xiii. 3-8, xx. 1-15, &c. 5 Matthew vii. 9-11; Luke xi. 11-13. 
6 Matthew vi. 9, &c. ' Galatians ii. 9-12; Acts xxi. 18, &o 

8 1 Corinthians ix. 5; Acts i. 13, 14; Galatians i. 19. 
e Matthew xii. 46 f. (Mark hi. 21, 31, f. ; Luke viii. 19). 



92 JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 

portions of Gospels * have been adduced to prove that it 
was so. We certainty shall not be wrong in supposing that 
Mary was a devout, gentle, affectionate mother, and that in 
the disposition and the outward wa}s of Jesus some of his 
mother's characteristics reappeared. But, on the other hand, 
an impartial consideration of the facts compels us to admit 
that Maiy, on the onty occasion on which she appears in real 
history, shows herself an affectionately solicitous, but also a 
narrow-minded, woman ; 2 and that, on the tw T o occasions on 
which Jesus indirectly refers to her, 3 a kind of sadness, a tone 
of disappointment, is perceptible in his language, which may 
easily be explained b}~ her never having been able to under- 
stand or appreciate him, or to sympathize with his aims. It is 
possible, even, that the visit to the temple rests upon some 
faint reminiscence that Jesus was not understood by his 
mother ; that even in early times a strong desire had more 
than once come over him to escape from his ordinary eniphyy- 
ments and existence and enter the higher regions of the spirit- 
ual life, but that this disposition had given his mother so 
much pain and anxiety that in obedience to her he reconciled 
himself to the ordinary course of life again. 4 However this 
may be, Jesus was so far superior to those about him that we 
can hardly blame his mother and brothers for not honoring 
him as he deserved, and for not having faith in him during 
his life. 5 

Jesus probably never went to school. At anj T rate, he cer- 
tainty did not attend an}' institution for teaching the theologi- 
cal lore of the Scribes ; 6 and, indeed, if we can trust the 
confused accounts of the Talmud, public teaching was not 
properly organized until a few years before the fall of Jeru- 
salem ; so that in all probabilit}* there was not a school at 
Nazareth when Jesus was a boy, and he must have learned 
reading from his father or mother. But in ancient times, 
especially in the East, such a circumstance did not necessarily 
imply a defective education or airy want of breeding and cul- 
ture. These things were far more common to the different 
classes of societ}' than the} 7 are with us, and were not in any 
case carried to a very high pitch of refinement. Indeed, it 

l Luke i. 28, 30, 38, 42, 45, 46-55, ii. 19, 51. 2 Mark iii. 21. 

3 Luke xi. 27, 28; Matthew xii. 47-50 (Mark iii. 31-35; Luke viii. 19-2U. 

4 Luke ii. 43, 48, 49, 50, 51. 

& Matthew xiii. 57 (Mark vi. 4; Luke iv. 24; John iv. 44). 
6 Matthew xiii. 54 (Mark vi. 2). Compare John vii. 15. 



JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 93 

was rather an advantage to Jesus than otherwise that he had 
not been to the university at Jerusalem ; for the hair-splitting 
discussions which were all the rage there would only have 
burdened his memory and perverted his reasoning faculties, 
whereas, as it was, he retained the originality of his genius. 
We must never forget that among the Jews very special at- 
tention was paid to the education of children. The duty de- 
volved upon the parents, more especially upon the father, who 
was bound to take every possible opportunity afforded by daily 
life 1 of impressing upon his children's minds the contents of 
the Scriptures, especially of the Law, and thus instructing 
them at once in their religious duties and in the history of 
their country. This duty is pressed upon the parents with 
the greatest emphasis ; and the children in their turn are com- 
manded to honor their father and mother in the commandment 
which takes the highest place after those enjoining the duties 
towards God.' 2 Nowhere else in antiquity was the bond 
between parent and child so close, the relation in which the}' 
stood to each other so well regulated, or domestic life so full 
of affection and of the spirit of religion as in Israel. "Our 
glory and the purpose of our lives," sa}*s Josephus, "is the 
education of our children and the observance of the Law." 

The parents were assisted in their weighty task by the 
synagogue, — an institution which, since the daj's of Ezra, 
had contributed more than anything else to make the Jewish 
religion the inalienable possession of the people. The histo- 
rian quoted above declares that reverence for and obedience 
to the divine commandments were impressed upon the Jews 
from earliest childhood as the principal object of life ; so that 
all of them, so to speak, knew the laws earlier and better 
than their own names. " The}' are so imprinted on our souls 
that we are read}* to die for them." From the time when he 
was live years old, most likely, Jesus regularly went to the 
sjmagogue at Nazareth week by week, 3 and there he always 
heard a portion of the Law, followed by a portion of the 
prophets, 4 read and explained. Here, too, he came directly 
into contact with the religious ideas and expectations of his 
people, and the religious life of the time tilled his bosom. 
Here he met the Pharisees, the devout leaders of Israel, and 
under their influence he was penetrated by the thought that 

1 Deuteronomy vi. 7, 20-25, xi. 19; Genesis xviii. 19; Exodus xii. 26 t\ 
siii. 8, 14 f. ; Joshua iv. 6 f. 

2 Compare Exodus xxi. 15, 17. 3 Luke iv. 16. 
4 Luke iv. 16, 17 ; Acts xiii 15, xv. 21. 



94 JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 

the Lord demanded righteousness as the condition of his 
favor, and b} T the passionate longing for Israel's redemption 
b} r the coming of the Messianic kingdom. Here, too, the 
most beautiful utterances of the great teachers at Jerusalem 
came to his knowledge. 

What good use the eager boy, with his powerful memory 
and clear judgment, must have made of this religious teach- 
ing appears not onry from his intimate acquaintance with 
the Pharisees., but from the profound and accurate knowl- 
edge of the Scriptures which he afterwards showed. For 
when we remember the great price of a copy of the Scrip- 
ture we can hardly suppose that the carpenter had one of his 
own. It is possible, however, that he may have possessed a 
single book ; and when we observe that Jesus borrows most 
of his quotations from the oracles of Isaiah, 1 the conjecture 
forces itself upon u£ that he had had the roll in his own 
hands more than once. Certainly the prophets had a far 
greater charm for him than the Law. In general, however, 
he must have gained his knowledge of the Scripture in the 
synagogue. 

It must have cost Jesus many an effort in after life to raise 
himself above all the religious prejudices which had been 
instilled into him from his ver} T infancy. But we must not for- 
get that in this respect again his education in Galilee brought 
great advantages with it. Galilee enjoyed greater religious 
freedom than Judaea, from which it was separated b} T the ter- 
ritory of the hostile and detested Samaritans. This separa- 
tion from the focus of Jewish orthodoxy, — from Jerusalem 
with its temple, its priesthood, and its rabbinical schools, — 
necessarily prevented the scholastic love of hair-splitting, 
with the extreme narrowness and foniialhVy which accom- 
panied it, from ever thoroughly taking root in Galilee among 
the people, or even among the Scribes, — who were tolerably 
numerous here also. Galilee was peculiar in several respects. 
It was so near Phoenicia, Syria, and Arabia that it was im- 
possible to avoid intercourse with the heathen ; and indeed 
some of the Galilaean towns themselves, — such as Tiberias, 
Kadesh, and Scythopolis, — had a heathen population. These 
things could not fail insensibly to widen the horizon of the 
inhabitants. For these and other reasons the Galilseans were 
held in small esteem at Jerusalem. They were said to be 

1 E.g. Matthew xi. 5; from Isaiah xxix. 18, xxxv. 3, lxi. 1; Matthew xiii. 
14 f. ; from Isaiah vi. 9, 10 ; Matthew xv. 8 f. ; from Isaiah xxix. 13; Matthew 
xxi. 13 ; from Isaiah lvi. 7 ; Matthew xxi. 33 ; from Isaiah v. 1, &c. 



JESUS IN THE TEMPLE. 95 

deficient in knowledge of the Law. It was said contemp- 
tuously, "There are no priests among the Galiheans," and 
" The} r do not learn the Law from one teacher." Their pro- 
vincial pronunciation was ridiculed. From time to time, in- 
deed, Scribes from Jerusalem would visit Galilee ; r but their 
sta3 T was limited, and it is very doubtful whether at this period 
they ever went to Nazareth. 

This, is all we know of the early life of Jesus. In the fore- 
ground we must place his own singular exaltation of charac- 
ter, the great gifts of heart and head which God had entrusted 
to him. Then we must take into account the circumstances, 
in man}' respects decidedly favorable, which contributed to 
the development of his character. It appears from the tran- 
quil conscience and the exalted self-reliance of the man Jesus 
that this development took place without any great shocks to 
contaminate his moral life, without stagnation and without 
disturbance. Though he had never put himself forward, 
though his appearance as a prophet caused general amaze- 
ment among his townsmen, 2 yet he had quietly matured 
himself for the task which God would assign to him. Evei 
increasing in love of God and of his neighbor, fervently long- 
ing for the coming of God's kingdom, he steadily "grew in 
wisdom and in favor with God and man." 

Would that the same could be said of the early life and 
development of all of us ! Which of us, with the example 
of Jesus before him, must not reproach himself with time 
wasted or worse than wasted, with want of respect and 
obedience, with unclean imaginations or evil practices, with 
weakness of will, want of love, and a hundred things be- 
side ! 

John, so far as we know, was the only master, in the 
proper sense, that Jesus ever had. This man exercised a 
decisive influence upon the formation of his ideas and pro- 
jects, and upon his whole subsequent history ; but of him, 
and of the movement to hasten the coming of the Mes- 
sianic age associated with his name, we must speak in a 
separate chapter. 

1 Matthew xv. 1 (Mark iii. 22, vii. 1). 

2 Matthew xiii. 54-57 (Mark vi. 2, 3). 



96 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

Chapter VII. 

JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

Luke III. 1-18.1 

THE stories we have been dealing with hitherto are but an 
introduction to the Gospel history. We are now ap- 
proaching the histoiy itself, and are therefore immediately 
transported to a considerably later period, and at the same 
time placed on somewhat firmer ground. The years over 
which the work of John and Jesus extended, and the precise 
period at which the former began his public life, cannot be 
fixed with certainty. Luke speaks of the fifteenth year of 
the reign of Tiberius, which would fall in the years twenty- 
eight and twent3'-nine of our era ; but this Evangelist is very 
inaccurate in his dates, and his knowledge of history in gen- 
eral leaves much to be desired. 2 In this very year, for 
instance, he mentions a certain Lj'sanias as governor of 
Abilene (a principality northeast of Palestine, not far from 
Damascus) , whereas this man had really been murdered more 
than half a century before. Again, he mentions both Annas 
and Caiaphas as high priests at the time. Caiaphas did really 
hold the office from a.d. 18 to a.d. 36, but Annas had been 
deposed in a.d. 14. We can therefore place but small reli- 
ance on the statement of Luke ; but other considerations 
prevent our departing from it very far. We may take it as 
certain that John did not come forward before a.d. 28, and 
a.d. 33 is the extreme limit on the other side. On the whole, 
this latter date may be taken as the most probable. 

These were sad times for Israel, — times of deep humilia- 
tion and ever-growing discontent. The Roman governor, 
Pontius Pilate, was wholly unfitted for his post. A Jewish 
writer of the period, the Alexandrian philosopher Philo, 
speaks of Pilate as obstinate and inexorable in character, 
mentions his reckless arrogance and his furious temper, and 
sums up the crimes of his government as follows : venality, 
violence, robbery, outrage, bullying, constant executions 
without legal trial, unbounded and unendurable cruelty. 
Now the Jews could bear much if their religious peculiarities 
were respected ; but Pilate, who did not in the least under- 
1 Matthew iii. 1-12 ; Mark i. 1-8. 2 See pp. 55, 56. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. Vi 

stand them, and had no desire to please them, exasperated 
them quite needlessly in this respect. He began his rule by 
a false step, which he could never recover ; for when the 
Roman troops were marching to Jerusalem, to go into winter 
quarters there, he ordered them to take their standards, with 
the silver busts of the emperor to which divine honors were 
paid, into the city with them. The order was carried out un- 
der cover of the night ; but in the morning, when the citizens 
perceived these images in the citadel right opposite the tem- 
ple, a great cry of horror rose. The abomination of idolatry 
in the holy city ! No previous governor had ever attempted 
such a thing. Whole troops of Jews set out for Csesarea to 
implore Pilate to remove the offence. He refused. Five 
whole days they persisted, night and day, and could not be 
removed from the spot. On the sixth day lie summoned 
them into the circus ; and when they raised their impetuous 
cry once more a band of soldiers suddenly rushed upon them 
with naked swords, but the Jews flung themselves upon the 
ground, laid bare their necks to the sword, and declared 
that the}' would die rather than violate the Law. Even Pilate 
shrank from such a massacre, and, in amazement at their 
obstinac}', ordered the images to be brought back to Cses- 
area. But afterwards he suspended on the walls of his pal- 
ace at Jerusalem, which had formerly belonged to Herod L, 
some thickly-gilt shields, with a short inscription to Tiberius. 
This he did, according to Philo, less for the sake of honoring 
the emperor than to anno}* the Jews. The result was re- 
newed resistance, — the sons of Herod placing themselves at 
the head of the people. The governor was obstinate ; but a 
petition to Tiberius secured the removal of the obnoxious 
shields. Even when Pilate benefited the Jews, he did it so 
clumsify as to raise bad blood. Thus, when he built a new 
aqueduct for Jerusalem, he laid hold of the treasures of the 
temple to defra}' the cost. A riot and consequent massacre 
were the results. On another occasion he ordered certain 
Galikean pilgrims to be slaughtered in the temple, so that 
their blood was mingled Avith that of their sacrifices. 1 

Now it happened at this as at other periods of Jewish 
histoiy that the deep depression of the times, when "the 
Lord hid his countenance and gave over his people to the re- 
proaches of the heathen," 2 roused with new strength in the 
noblest sons of Israel their hope in God and his deliverance. 
While the high priest and the whole party of the Sadducees 
1 Luke xiii. 1. 2 Psalms xliv. 12-14, 24. 

VOL. III. 5 



98 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

usually kept on a good understanding with the governor, 
while the Scribes and most of the adherents of the Pharisaic 
part}' consoled themselves with hair-splitting studies of the 
Law and the tradition, or with scrupulously observing and 
enforcing the countless precepts of a frivolous formality ; 
while the people murmured but never thought of seeking the 
guilt in their own hearts, and humbling themselves before the 
Lord ; while the pious sighed but saw no light, — a man 
stood up in the wilderness of Judah, and, in the strength of 
his trust in God, promised an end to all this misery. Nay, 
more, in obedience to the voice of God in his heart he sought 
to make Israel's deliverance possible ; for he knew that those 
only could be rescued and delivered who bowed beneath the 
chastening rod of the Lord, and did penance for their sins. 
In the sufferings of his people he saw an indication that the 
promises of God to the former generations were on the point 
of being fulfilled, for these things could noc last, and humilia- 
tion and misery could go no further ; but at the same time he 
recognized in them a righteous visitation on the people's sins, 
and the announcement of the great judgment of God, in 
which all the impious should be destroj-ecl. He felt that the 
Messianic age, and the fearful day of judgment that would 
inaugurate it, were now close at hand. Nothing was want- 
ing but one to prepare the way of the Lord and make Israel 
ready for his coming. This task he therefore took upon him- 
self, that he might hasten the dawn of the glorious future. 
"Repent, for the Messianic kingdom is at hand," 1 — such 
was the substance of his preaching. 

He was certainly not alone in his wishes and his expecta- 
tions, but gave utterance to what was in the heart of many 
more whose fervent pra} T ers rose to the God of Israel, and 
who longed for the Messianic kingdom more eagerly than 
ever. But, to say nothing of the stern enthusiasm with 
which he preached repentance, no one before him had had 
the courage to speak in so decisive a tone, and to put his 
own hand to the work ; though now that he had once made 
himself the mouth-piece of the high-wrought Messianic ex- 
pectations of his time, his words found an echo everywhere. 
The news of his appearance spread through the length and 
breadth of the land. It penetrated even to the distant Gali- 
lee, that had been spared the Roman supremac} T so far ; and 
from the secluded Nazareth there came to the preacher of re- 
jentance the man who was to be his successor and far more 
i Matthew iii. 2. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 99 

besides. But it was chiefly in Judaea and Samaria, groaning 
under the tyranny of Pilate, that the fuel was collected into 
which the spark was thrown. From Jerusalem, from all 
Judaea, from the whole region round about the Jordan, 1 the 
people streamed to hear the new preacher. And though the 
Samaritans of course could not go to a Jewish man of God, 
yet we shall hardly be wrong in connecting a similar move- 
ment which rose in Samaria not long afterwards with the 
appearance of John in Israel. For in Samaria, too, a popu- 
lar leader appeared, and promised to show his fellow- country- 
men the spot on Mount Gerizim in which were buried the 
tables of the Law, the golden basin of manna, and other 
sacred objects which had long been lost, but which popular 
tradition and belief declared were to be discovered again in 
the Messianic age. 2 This man was followed by a large and 
constantly-increasing crowd of delighted enthusiasts ; but 
Pilate sent his cavalry and heavy infantry to the spot, and 
the attempt to found the Messianic kingdom was quenched 
in blood. 

In a word, the whole movement to which the New Testa- 
ment and other writings of the same period bear witness 
received its decisive impulse from the preacher in the wilder- 
ness of Judah. 8 

Who was this man? Nothing but his bare name, John, 
is preserved. Neither Josephus nor the historical portions 
of the Gospels tell us so much as his father's name. His 
title, "the Baptist," superseded the usual style of "John, 
the son of so and so." It is not impossible, however, to ar- 
rive at certain more or less probable conclusions with regard 
to his origin and education. 

Probably he was a Judsean b} T birth. All our accounts of 
his preaching in the wilderness of Judah 4 authorize the sup 
position that he was not a stranger there, but felt completely 
at home on the scene of his activit} T . The figures of speech 
he uses, the mode of life he adopted, the extreme privations 
to which he subjected himself, all confirm us in our opinion. 
His fife was an unbroken fast ; 6 that is to say, he ate only 
what was absolutely necessary to sustain life, nothing but 
what the sterile country itself could furnish. He quenched 
his thirst at the spring, and stayed his hunger with locusts 

i Matthew iii. 5 (Mark i. 5). 

2 2 Maccabees ii. 4-8 ; Revelation ii. 17, xi. 19. 8 Matthew xi. 12, 

* See vol. i. p. 518. 5 Matthew xi. 18. 



100 JOHN THE- BAPTIST. 

dried in the sun, with wild honey, and other such food. He 
was a genuine son of the wilderness. 

It is interesting to note these particulars ; for the region 
between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, however monotonous 
and inhospitable, was the scene of high- wrought spiritual life. 
John was not the only eremite who withdrew from all the 
pleasures of life into this wilderness, and collected a band of 
disciples about him 03- the fame of his sanctity. About 
twent}^ 3 r ears later w r e hear of a certain Banus who dwelt 
there, clothed in the bark of trees, eating nothing but the 
natural products of the soil, and constantly bathing day and 
night in cold water. We know of him through Flavius 
Josephus, who joined him in earl}' life and remained with 
him three years. He was certainly not his first or only 
disciple. 

Of far greater importance, however, are the colonies or 
hamlets of the Essenes, Avhich were situated, at the beginning 
of our era, just in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea. 1 Here 
lived the Essenes, secluded from the turmoil of society, a 
close order into which no one could be received except after 
a novitiate of three years, and after taking a solemn oath. 
All distinctions between rich and poor, slaves and freemen, 
were annulled ; but unconditional obedience to the laws and 
regulations of the order, and to the leaders and older mem- 
bers, was exacted, and an iron discipline reigned supreme. 
The Essenes were unmarried and observed the strictest absti- 
nence, refraining from the use of meat, of wine, and of spirits ; 
offering earl}- morning prayers, pursuing peaceful industries, 
observing the Sabbath with incredible minuteness, performing 
numerous ceremonial ablutions, partaking of a common meal, 
and devoting themselves to pious reflections and speculations 
as to the future, in which in all probability the Messianic ex- 
pectation occupied a prominent position. 

Of course John must have known of this sect, and must 
have felt its influence. Indeed, he has frequently been re- 
garded as himself a member of the order of Essenes. But 
this is a mistake. His style of life, it is true, reminds us of 
theirs ; but he stood alone, and belonged to no close society. 
He submitted his followers to baptism only once in their lives, 
and exacted no oath from them. Above all he had none of 
that dread of ceremonial uncleanness 2 which made the Es- 
senes shrink with the utmost horror from all contact with 
publicans or outcast women. But no one can say how far he 
- Compare p. 6. 2 Matthew xxi. 32. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 101 

wa& carried awa} T b} T the intensity of the spiritual life that 
drew hermits and monks to these regions above all others ; 
how far the impressions he there received ma}^ have con- 
tributed to wake the sense of his vocation, the longing to do 
something for God and his people, the hope that the Messi- 
anic kingdom might be founded ! His person was impressive 
and commanding, his preaching bold and stern, even to the 
point of harshness ; both were threatening and sombre, in 
perfect harmonj- with the wilderness which was the scene of 
his activit} 7 . 

We can see him still in imagination, with the rough mantle 
of camel's hair thrown upon his naked body, bound round his 
waist with a leather girdle. Such a garment was worn in 
sign of penitence ; but it seems also to have been the usual 
costume in ancient times of all who would announce them- 
selves as prophets. 1 In the case of Elijah both the girdle 
and mantle are especially mentioned. 2 And John came in 
Elijah's place. No touching lamentation like Jeremiah's, no 
rapturous strain of consolation like the second Isaiah's, 3 need 
be looked for from his lips, — but preaching terrible as the 
thunder ! Elijah had been called " the prophet of fire, whose 
word burned like a torch ; " and must not John, in taking up 
the task that had been assigned to Elijah, regard himself as 
"ordained in the Scripture to preach repentance in those 
times, to turn away the wrath of God before it broke forth at 
the Messianic judgment, to turn the hearts of the. fathers to 
the children again, and restore the tribes of Jacob? " 4 

Such was the spirit in which he undertook his task. " Re- 
pent," he cried, "for the kingdom of heaven is near!" 
Malachi had threatened, " Behold the daj^ of judgment comes, 
burning like a furnace, and all the proud and sinful shall be 
as stubble, and the day that is drawing near shall consume 
them wdth fire till neither root nor branch be left. Who shall 
abide when Yahweh appears ? " 5 And in the same spirit 
John rose up, lest the Lord when he came in glory should 
smite the land of Canaan with his curse as though it were a 
heathen conntry ; 6 and he cried, " The axe is laid already to 
the root of the trees ; and every tree that does not bear good 
fruit will be hewn down and cast into the fire. After me 
comes the Lord of Hosts, and whomsoever he finds ready he 

1 Zechariah xiii. 4; Isaiah xx. 2. 2 2 Kings i. 8 ; compare ii. 13, 14. 
8 S^e vol. ii. chap. x. p 417. 4 Jesus Sirach xlviii. 1, 10. 

6 Malachi iv. 1, iii. 2 ; compare Zephaniah i. 14-18. 
• Malachi iv. fi. 



102 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

will baptize with the Holy Spirit i 1 but the unconverted will 
he plunge into the fiery furnace." Sometimes the preacher 
changed his image, and compared God to the husbandman 
who flings the corn that he has threshed into the air with his 
shovel, that the light and worthless chaff may be blown away 
and separated from the precious grain ; even so would the 
Lord sift the holy from the unholy. " Behold he comes with 
the fan in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his 
threshing-floor ; he will gather the wheat into the barn, but 
the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." 

This was the usual tone and subject of his preaching. 
You will notice that he thought and spoke entirely in the 
spirit of the ancient prophets, or rather of the most threaten- 
ing discourses of the sternest of their number. His language 
was severe and harsh. In the description of his work we 
seek in vain for the traces of those softer emotions which 
often touch us so deeply in the oracles of the Old Testament. 
His announcement of the approaching Messianic age appears 
to have borne the character almost exclusively of an exhor- 
tation to repentance, and not to have had a touch of consola- 
tion or encouragement in it. We should never have learned 
from him that the founding of the Messianic kingdom was the 
object of Israel's wildest hopes and deepest longings, as the 
fulfilment of God's great promises to the fathers and the pledge 
of the infinite mercy and unshaken faithfulness of the Lord. 
Only compare the so-called song of praise of Zachariah " 2 with 
the preaching of John ! Could there be a greater contrast ? 

Nevertheless, we may take it for granted that he too 
looked upon the Messianic kingdom as the glorification and 
exaltation of Israel, as deliverance from foreign rule and 
vengeance upon the heathen oppressor, as the eternal glory 
and unbroken bliss of the saints. But since he confined him- 
self almost entirely to what must immediately precede this 
golden age, and considered it his exclusive mission to pre- 
pare the hearts of men for its coming, God became to him so 
entirely the God of judgment and the God of vengeance 
that his mercy falls into the background, eclipsed, as it 
were, b} T his anger. Though John's work is so closely con- 
nected with the gospel, yet there is not a trace of the gos- 
pel tone or spirit in his preaching, not even a presentiment 
in his soul of faith in the God of love. But this ought not 
to surprise us when we remember that the conception of 

1 Isaiah xxxii. 15, xliv. 3 ; Ezekiel xxxvi. 26-29, xxxix. 29 ; Joel ii. 28, 29. 
* Luke i. 68-79, compared with Luke iii. 7-9, 17. See p. 45. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 103 

God's nature cherished by the Israelites had by no means 
gained in gentleness or attractiveness since the Captivity. 
On the contrary, the} T thought of God as ever further and 
further removed from man, as the terrible and unapproach- 
able Judge of the world, inexorably stern and dreadful in 
his wrath. John was a true child of his age, however high 
his prophetic gifts exalted him above it. 

The expression "kingdom of heaven," for the Messianic 
age, was borrowed from the usage of the time. Neither the 
Scribes who introduced it, nor the people who adopted it, nor 
John himself, intended for a moment to speak of an abode in 
heaven, or even of the heavenly character of the coming age. 
The expression may have referred to the heavenly origin of 
the kingdom ; for the fearful revolution and all its conse- 
quences were to be brought to pass by the coming of the 
Lord from heaven. But most likely the name " kingdom of 
heaven" was used instead of "kingdom of God," simply 
because the Jews of the period had a superstitious dislike of 
using the word God when they could avoid it, — just as many 
people now prefer to speak of Providence or Heaven instead 
of God. 

" Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ! " If we 
ascribe the later Jewish tinge in John's conception of God to 
the influence of his age, and set aside the purely menacing 
character of his language as due to his special conception of 
his mission, then the burden of his preaching perfectly agrees 
with that of all the other prophets. It is a new variation 
upon the old theme familiar to every one of them without 
exception. " Amend your ways, for Yahweh's justice sends 
all these disasters to chastise you, nor will it suffer him to 
do to 3'ou according to his covenant ; but if you repent he 
will comfort you with such bliss and glory as has never yet 
entered into the heart of man to conceive." Such was the 
substance of all the prophecies, the one only message which 
the ancient men of God had ever brought to Israel. So far, 
then, John stood exactly in the line of the prophets. And 
in that which constituted the very essence of the prophetic 
character, — the irresistible impulse to stand up before the peo- 
ple, the hallowed inspiration to speak to them in the name of 
God, and above all the unshaken hope that a glorious mor- 
row would with infallible certainty dissipate the gloom and 
darkness of to-day, — in all this John might bear comparison 
with Jeremiah and Michah themselves. 

But the appearance of a prophet was a far more significant 



104 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

fact, and demanded far more courage on the prophet's part 
in the year thirty- three of our era than in the eighth, the 
seventh, or the sixth centuiy b.c. ; and in other respects, 
too, John excelled his predecessors, and was "more than a 
prophet." 1 He dared to undertake the task of Elijah. In 
holy impatience he dared to promise the dawn of the Messi- 
anic age as close at hand, whereas his predecessors had gen- 
erally represented it as in the more or less distant future. 
He laid greater stress than any other man of God had done 
upon the share which Israel itself must take in hastening 
this future, and as it were forcing the kingdom of heaven 
from God ! Above all, he himself began to make ready and 
prepare the way by baptizing in the Jordan, so as to make 
any longer dela} T impossible. So John was more courageous 
and more practical than all the prophets. 

To perform the ceremony of baptism he had, of course, to 
leave the wilderness ; and indeed at the end of his ministry, 
which certainty was not of long duration, we find him in the 
Transjordanic district, still further removed from the scene 
of his first appearance. We may suppose that he did not 
begin to baptize until the attention of the public had already 
been fixed upon him, and he had begun to make some im- 
pression. Those who received his baptism declared their 
fixed resolve to amend their lives ; and for this reason the 
ceremony was called a " baptism of repentance," and was 
usually preceded by a confession of sins. John on his side 
promised the penitent, in the name of God, " forgiveness of 
sins," — that is, immunity from the terrors of the Messianic 
judgment. He would admit no one of whose genuine repent- 
ance and resolutions of amendment he was not convinced. 
This baptism, by which, as Josephus truly remarks, he es- 
tablished a society or community (of the future partakers of 
the Messianic blessings) , was at that time a novelty ; for the 
figurative mention of " washing" and " pure water," 2 which 
occurs here and there in the prophets, even if it suggested 
some such rite, furnished no precedent. The purification of 
the people by Moses before the proclamation of the Law is 
pei haps rather more to the point. 8 The repeated dairy ab- 
lutions of the Essenes hardly afford a parallel, for they were 
intended to secure external (Levitical) purity, 4 while the 

1 Matthew xi. 9. 2 Isaiah i. 16, xliv. 3 ; Ezekiel xxxyi. 25 ; Zechariah xiii. 1. 
8 Exodus xix. 10, 14. 

4 Compare Mark vii. 4 and Genesis xxxv. 2 ; Exodus xix. 10; Numbers 
xix. 7. See vol. ii. chap, xviii. p. 508. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 105 

oaptisni of John, which was performed once for all, was a 
symbol of moral purity. We must regard the baptism of 
John, therefore, as a very original institution, of great beauty 
and appropriateness ; or, in the language of the age, we must 
say that the rite was of heaven (of God) and not of men. 1 
John's object was that the Lord, when he came, should find 
all things ready, — a band alread}' set apart of those who 
feared, him, "whom he might spare, his heritage; a band 
upon whom the sun of righteousness should ascend, and who 
should find healing under his wings." 2 As to the form under 
which John thought of the appearance of God, and of the 
Messianic bliss that was to succeed the day of judgment, 
our authorities leave us entirely in the dark. 

The impression produced by the preacher of the wilderness 
and his proclamation of the kingdom of God was overwhelm- 
ing ; and when he began to baptize it became deeper yet. 
From the nature of the case the number of his hearers was 
very limited at first, but it gradually rose until the people 
flowed to him in ever widening streams from every side. 
Among them there were many whose sense of guilt was 
roused by the passionate earnestness and the fearful denun- 
ciations of the prophet, till they felt and showed the peni- 
tence and promised the reformation he demanded, and were 
baptized by him in the Jordan. But perhaps the deep im 
pression he produced is still more clearly shown in the fact 
that some who realty had no sense of guilt at all, and had 
therefore formed no resolutions of amendment, were carried 
away by the stream, and came with the rest to hear the new 
prophet. They were men who expected and calculated upon 
the founding of the Messianic kingdom, and with a view to 
it desired to be baptized by John ; but did so only as a kind 
of extra precaution, so as to be safe in an}' case. If it did 
no good, the}' thought, at an} T rate it could not well do any 
harm. They had little doubt, however, that simply as Israel- 
ites, as members of the chosen people, they were already in- 
cluded in the covenant of the Lord, and could therefore 
claim a place in the Messianic kingdom, and had no cause 
to dread the judgment which would consume great sinners 
and heathen. At any rate, there were some in whom John 
perceived or suspected such ideas, and the burning stream 
of his indignation burst upon them. "Tribe of vipers!" 
he thuudered, refusing to baptize them, " what brought you 

1 Matthew xxi. 25 (Mark xi. 30; Luke xx. 4). 2 Malachi iii. 17, iv. % 

6* 



106 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

here ? Who told you to come to me for security against the 
wrath of God that will break upon you on that great day? 
First show me in } T our lives that when joyi talk about repent- 
ance 3 r ou mean something by it ! Soothe not yourselves with 
the idle thought, ' We are the seed of Abraham, and ours is 
the promise of the Messianic kingdom ; ' for I tell } T ou this 
will avail you nothing, and the Almighty could make children 
of Abraham out of these stones on Jordan's banks ! " 

The preacher of repentance feared nothing, and spared 
no one. Not even the royal purple overawed him ; and we 
shall see presently how this boldness cost him his life at 
last. He drove his demand for penitence so well home, and 
waked such an echo in the consciences of his hearers, that no 
escape was left. A few specimens of his preaching have 
been preserved. When the crowds exclaimed, "You tell us 
to repent, and so we do ; but say what you require or expect 
of us," — he answered, " Overcome jour greed, } T our selfish- 
ness, your hard-heartedness. Be generous and merciful. 
Whoever has two coats, let him give one of them to the 
need} 7 ; whoever has abundant food, let him satisfy the 
hungry." Even soldiers, who were little, better than ruffians 
for the most part in those da}*s, came and asked him, " What 
must we do if we repent?" "Be content with 3*0111* pay," 
he answered ; " treat the citizens decently, and lay hold of no 
man's goods." Simple as the exhortation was, it implied a 
complete change in the soldier's habits of life ; for discipline 
was very imperfect, and the soldiers supported or enriched 
themselves out of what they could exact from the citizens by 
violence or threats. Even the cursed and outcast hirelings 
of the heathen plunderers who sucked the marrow of Israel, 
even the publicans themselves, sometimes came to John and 
asked him reverently, ' ' Master, what must our repentance 
be?" Strange that he did not tell them, first of all, to give 
up their occupation ! But he contented himself with saying, 
"Never be guilty of injustice or extortion again; never 
exact a farthing more than what is fixed b} T 3*our em- 
ployers." But the practice of draining the resources of 
a province and gaining wealth from the extortion was so 
universal, and the scramble between the higher officers 
and their subordinates for the chief share of the booty so 
shameless, that John's exhortation involved nothing short 
of a revolution. 

It was remarkable that these and such as these came 
gradually in greater and yet greater numbers to the wilder- 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. 107 

ness and the Jordan, — publicans, people of either sex who 
had been guilt}' of gross offences, notorious sinners smitten 
by the church's ban and the contempt of all right-minded 
citizens. It was doubtless because their sense of guilt was 
more easily roused and their consciences accused them more 
loudly than was the case with others ; and also because 
the prophet, instead of rejecting them with horror, saw no 
such great difference between them and the ordinary Israel- 
ites, but considered all Israel as in truth unclean. It was 
with these outcast classes that John had most success. With 
them the working of the new influence was obvious, their 
repentance was practical, the impression they received per- 
manent, their faith genuine. 1 

In general, however, the result of the prophet's preaching 
and baptizing was certainly not equal to the expectations 
which might fairly have been formed by others, and with 
which he himself had begun his work. The leaders of the 
nation maintained an impartial or rather an indifferent atti- 
tude towards him to the last. 2 As long as he caused no 
disturbance they left him to pursue his way ; but as for going 
to him themselves, the high-born priests and magistrates 
never dreamed of such a thing ! They turned in contempt 
from a prophet to whose followers the very refuse of the peo- 
ple belonged. 8 The Pharisees might have shown more inter- 
est in his work if only he would have paid them the attention 
they conceived to be their due ; but such courteous advances 
were hardly to be expected from him, and the Pharisees on 
their side had not penetration enough to understand and 
appreciate him, and so take the initiative themselves. Inas- 
much as he announced the near approach of the kingdom of 
God, for which they too passionately longed, they did pay 
some attention to him ; but their superstitious reverence for 
antiquity and their slavish worship of the letter effectually 
prevented their recognizing in him a prophet of the true and 
ancient stamp. Their national pride might well be hurt by 
the small esteem in which he seemed to hold the privilege of 
descent from Abraham. Their narrowness and self-satisfac- 
tion may have caused man}' of them to regard as a fanatical 
extravagance the strictness and severity of a piety which, 
though somewhat similar 4 to their own, went so much further. 
And the result was that many of them, when they saw what 
a consuming fire burned in him, shrugged their shoulders and 

i Matthew xxi. 32. 2 Mark xi. 33 (Matthew xxi. 27; Luke xx. 7). 

* Matthew xxi. 32. 4 Matthew ix. 14 (Mark ii. 18 j Luke v. 33). 



108 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

cried, u The fellow must be mad." 1 But the great masses 
bowed before his mighty spirit, went to the wilderness in 
crowds, 2 desired to be admitted to his baptism, 3 believed for 
the most part that he was a true prophet, 4 and even accepted 
his announcement of the Messianic age in such complete good 
faith that, when he had changed the wilderness for the district 
beyond Jordan, the movement began to assume dangerous 
proportions in the eyes of Herod. Even after his imprison- 
ment they did not forget him ; and when he had been be- 
headed, and the royal murderer suffered a defeat in battle 
some time afterwards, the disaster was regarded by the peo- 
ple as the penalty exacted b} T a righteous God for the blood 
of John the Baptist. 5 But in spite of all this the multitude 
was too shallow to retain a lasting impression of his preach- 
ing, and soon fell into the old groove again. 

But among those he baptized there were some who would 
not leave him again ; and he gradually found himself sur- 
rounded by a band of faithful and zealous disciples, who 
regulated their lives in accordance with his precepts. He 
ordered them to fast often and strictly ; 6 to show their re- 
pentance, and to do penance not only for themselves but for 
all Israel, including the unconverted. He taught them long 
prayers to be repeated daily for the speedy coming of the 
Messianic kingdom. 7 There was nothing original in these com- 
mandments themselves ; and, indeed, bj^ laying such stress 
on outward forms of religion he showed how thoroughly 
he was still imbued with the Jewish spirit, 8 since the Phari- 
sees also enforced the same observances upon their followers. 9 
But the meaning of it all was very different in the two cases. 
With the Pharisees such actions were considered so merito- 
rious as to afford a just ground of satisfaction to those who 
performed them ; with John the}" were simpfy acts of self- 
humiliation to propitiate the Lord before the day of judgment, 
attempts to appease Him that the dawn of the golden age 
might be hastened. In a word his whole system turned upon 
the approach of the kingdom of God. 

In dealing with the person of John we are on thoroughly 
historical ground. Not only does Josephus 10 mention his 

1 Matthew xi. 18 (Luke vii. 33). 2 Matthew xi. 7 (Luke vii. 24). 
a Luke vii. 29. 4 Matthew xxi. 26 (Mark xi. 32; Luke xx. 6} 

5 Flavius Josephus. 6 Matthew ix. 14 (Mark ii. 18 ; Luke v. 33). 

f Luke xi. 1. 8 Matthew xi. 11. 

9 Matthew ix. 14 (Mark ii. 18; Luke v. 33), as above. Also Matthew vi. 5 
16 ; Luke xviii. 11, 12. 

10 Jewish Antiquities, book xviii. chap. v. sec. 2. \ 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. lOi) 

name, his work, the influence he exercised, and his death, 
but the incidental notices scattered up and down throughout 
the first three Gospels bear from their very nature the clear 
stamp of truth. These casual, and as it were unintentional, 
allusions fill in and correct the passages referred to at the 
head of this chapter, in which the Gospels expressly descrite 
the man and his preaching. There is, however, one point to 
which .we have not yet referred, and as to which we must ex- 
pressly caution our readers, as they will otherwise fall into a 
serious mistake concerning John the Baptist. 

The point in question is this : John is represented as having 
proclaimed himself the precursor of Jesus, or rather of the 
Messiah. Luke even adds that the people were in doubt 
whether he himself was not the Christ, and that he took occa- 
sion thereby to promise that the Christ should come, and to 
distinguish himself from him as his predecessor. 1 "After me 
comes one who is mightier than I, the thongs of whose 
sandals I am not worthy to unloose ; " 2 that is to say, for 
whom I am not worthy to perform the most menial office. 
The Gospels also apply to the Messiah John's prophecy of 
Him who would baptize with the Holy Spirit, and with the 
fire of judgment, and would purify his threshing-floor from 
chaff with his fan. But we have explained these words as 
referring not to the coming of the Christ, but to the appear- 
aace of God. This " Mightier One" is the Lord, is Yahweh 
himself. But inasmuch as the metaphor of the sandal- thong 
is. not strictly applicable to any but a man, these words have 
generally been understood to refer to the Messiah, and con- 
sequently all the other promises and threats embodied in 
John's preaching have been taken in the same sense. 

But this is certainty incorrect. In the preaching of John 
the Messiah completely disappears. This need not surprise 
us ; for we know from our accounts of the religious condition 
of the Jews in the Captivity, and after the return, that many 
of the prophets conceived of the Messianic age without a 
human king (or Messiah) . They expected that in this per- 
fect realm of God, this age of Israel's holiness and glory, 
Yahweh would reign over his people in his own person. 
We must also observe that John is obviously dependent upon 
Malachi for his conceptions of the future. Not only did he 
borrow from this last of the prophets his conception of the 
task of Elijah, but the whole spirit of his preaching was 

i Luke iii. 15, 16. 

2 Matthew iii. 11, 12 (Mark i. 7, 8; Luke iii. 15-18; Acts xiii. 21, 25), 



110 JOHN THE BAPTIST. 

strongly influenced by him. Now Malachi never speaks of 
the Messiah, but distinctly announces Yahweh's own appear- 
ance. We need not therefore be surprised if we find John 
anticipating, proclaiming, and preparing the kingdom of God 
itself, without ever speaking of its human ruler. But the 
strongest proof that we are not mistaken is found in the fact 
that eveiwwhere in the prophets of the Old Testament, in the 
Apocryphal books, and in the writings of John's contempo- 
raries, whenever the Messianic judgment is mentioned, the 
judge is no other than God himself; in no single case is the 
judgment deputed to the Messiah. The preaching of John 
can hardly have formed an exception. When he speaks of 
the Husbandman, of the coming Baptizer, of the Mighty One 
who handles the axe, he means no other than God. 

Moreover, we can readily understand how the Evangelists 
fell into their mistake. When John, without knowing it 
beforehand, and without himself intending it, had actually 
become the precursor of Jesus (the Christ) , the Christians 
could hardly help understanding of their Master and apply- 
ing to him the predictions which the preacher had uttered of 
God. " He who comes after me is mightier than I," he had 
said ; and were not his words fulfilled in Jesus ? Moreover, 
the confusion was favored by the great change which the 
Messianic expectation underwent in Christian circles. The 
Apostles and apostolic communities cherished the hope that 
when Jesus ere long returned from heaven he would himself 
hold the last judgment. 1 What could be more obvious, there- 
fore, than to explain the utterances of John concerning this 
judgment as having reference to (Jesus) the Christ? And 
of course this mistake must have had its influence upon the 
form in which the preaching of John was handed down and 
finally recorded. 

For when once the tradition had brought John into such 
close relations with Jesus, it was easy to cany the process 
a little further. It was first imagined and then asserted that 
John had stood upon the same hostile footing towards the 
heads and leaders of the people as that which Jesus occupied. 
Thus, though the Sadducees and Pharisees had really re- 
mained neutral on the whole, Matthew represents them as 
having come with simulated interest to the baptism, and 
having drawn from the lips of the prophet the indignant 
" brood of vipers ! " which we have already explained. ' l In 
the same spirit it is said elsewhere that they were only re- 

i Matthew xxv. 31 ; Romans xiv. 10; 2 Corinthians v. 10. 
2 Matthew iii. 7. Compare xii. 'Si, xxiii. 3d. 



JOHN THE BAPTIST. Ill 

strained from openly expressing their condemnation of him 
by their fear of the populace. 1 

In another respect, however, the tradition has remained 
remarkably faithful to history. It has not ascribed to John 
an}* of those miracles so profusely worked into the history of 
Jesus. 2 The reason is obvious. In the first place, the 
activity of John does not afford those natural opportunities 
for the. introduction of miraculous stories which occasioned 
their insertion into the sketch of the life of Jesus; and, be- 
sides, the Baptist so soon fell into the shadow of his great 
successor that the imagination of the Christians soon de- 
serted the forerunner, and busied itself exclusively with the 
central figure of the Gospel histoiy. 

In conclusion : With regard to John, we possess the witness 
of a contemporary who was better qualified than an}* other 
to judge him. Jesus repeatedly spoke of him expressly, and 
at length. 3 It is from these utterances of Jesus that we 
derive our accurate knowledge of the man ; and it is from them 
rhat we have borrowed most of the colors with which we have 
attempted to paint a true picture of him . Jesus regards him 
as a messenger of God, as greater than any of the prophets, 
as the man who roused the conscience of sinners, and inten- 
sified the Messianic hope of his contemporaries till it became 
an impetuous demand. But for all that, Jesus does not at- 
tempt to conceal the fact that John stood completely upon 
Jewish soil, and remained to the backbone a representative, 
of the Law, insisting on the outer duties of religion, and filled 
with dread of the stern Judge of men. Great as he was, the 
humblest mortal who had really entered the kingdom of God, 
who had risen through faith in the love of the Heavenly 
Father to perfect freedom from all legal compulsion, was 
greater than he. Thus Jesus could bring his own vocation 
and work into the very closest connection with those of John, 
and could see in the lot of his predecessor a foreshadowing of 
what awaited him ; and yet at the same time could place him- 
self in direct contrast with John as the preacher of other good 
tidings, of another God and another kingdom of heaven. 

The sequel of the history will show us the relations in 
which these two men came to stand towards each other, and 
the opportunities which Jesus had of observing the whole 
work and character of this last prophet of the ancient dis- 
pensation. 

i Matthew xxi. 26 (Mark xi. 32; Luke xx. 6). 2 Compare John x. 41. 

8 Matthew xi. 2-19 (Luke vii. 18-35); Matthew xvii. 12, 13, xxi. 23-32 
;Mark xi. 27-33; Luke xx. 1-8). 



112 THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. 

Chapter VIII. 

THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. 

Majrk I. 9-11.1 

AT Nazareth, in the house of Joseph the carpenter, words 
of farewell were being exchanged. The father of the 
family was perhaps alreacl}^ dead, — at least we do not meet 
with him again ; but the mother was still living, and on this 
occasion we picture all the married sons and daughters who 
had settled in the place 2 gathering once more under the old 
roof, — for one of their brothers, who had so far always stayed 
with his mother and worked at his trade to support her, was 
now leaving home, and they had all come to wish him a hearty 
farewell. Jesus was starting on a journej', and how long he 
would be away it was impossible to tell. Had he himself any 
presentiment that the turning point of his life was drawing 
near, and that he would never more come back to live under 
his mother's roof? 

He had determined to go to the Jordan to John. The im- 
pulse which this man had given to the spiritual life of his peo- 
ple had made itself felt at Nazareth. At the city gate, in the 
synagogue, and in the homes of his friends and acquaintances, 
Jesus had listened with eager ears to the reports of this 
strange preacher of the wilderness. Had the Lord really 
visited His people, then, and raised up a prophet as in days 
gone by? 3 Had John, indeed, received a commission from 
God to proclaim the approach of the Messianic age? At 
least his demand for repentance, and his immersion of the 
people in the purifying water, was something very different 
from the war-ciy raised some years ago by Judas. 4 If the 
kingdom of God was to be gained at all, it must be b} r righte- 
ousness and not by violence. If? — But might not Jesus 
find in the very eagerness with which he himself looked for- 
ward to the great day of the Lord a pledge that it was near 
at hand ? 

He could not quietly work on with plane and saw any longer. 
So he put his affairs in order, bade farewell to his family, and 

1 Matthew iii. 13-17; Luke iii. 21, 21. 

2 1 Corinthians ix. 5 ; Matthew xii. 46, xiii. 56. 

8 Compare Psalm lxxiv. 9: 1 Maccabeos iv. 4fi, ix. 27, xiv. 41. 
* Seep. 89. 



THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. 113 

set out on his journey, perhaps by himself, perhaps in com- 
pany with other Nazarenes, but in an}' case alone ; for he could 
not communicate the thoughts and emotions that crowded into 
his breast to any one. When he reached the place of his des- 
tination he pressed with eager interest into the crowd of hear- 
ers, and marked well the man that he had so longed to see 
and hear. He was not disappointed. John's heroic and in- 
vincible courage, his unshaken confidence in God and in him- 
self, his unexampled rigor, scorning all luxury or delicacy in 
food and raiment, made an indelible impression on Jesus. 
The main purport, at least, of his preaching waked a full echo 
in Jesus' soul, and the firm conviction that the promises of God 
were soon to be fulfilled, and that a sense of guilt and a long- 
ing for righteousness were the indispensable conditions of par- 
taking of His salvation, struck deep root in his heart. Truly 
this man was a prophet ; ay, and more than a prophet ! For 
the prophets did but announce God's kingdom, while John 
prepared the way for it, and had risen up to do Elijah's work. 
All this Jesus felt. He penetrated to the inner meaning of 
John's efforts, and reverenced his bold resolve. He could not 
doubt that he was prompted by a divine impulse, was obeying 
the voice of God, when he baptized in the Jordan the host of 
penitents that confessed their sins and promised to strive 
after righteousness. 

And after listening to his preaching for a time Jesus wished 
to be baptized himself. It is obvious wiry he did so. As 
soon as he recognized this baptism as a divine institution, it 
was but natural that he should wish to submit to it. He, too, 
would express under this form his fervent hope in the coming 
of the Lord. He, too, would register his promise to live after 
the will of God, and to do what in him lay to hasten the 
coming of the great salvation. He, too, would confess how 
far he was from what he would have himself, and how deeply 
he felt his own imperfection. He, too, would be received hy 
the messenger of God into the company of those who should 
enter into the kingdom. 

It would seem that he still remained with John for a time 
after he had been baptized Iry him. There was much in the 
preacher's surroundings, besides his person, to excite Jesus' 
interest and arrest his attention. How different were these 
scenes from those in w T hich he had lived hitherto ! He was 
struck b}^ the fact that among John's most eager hearers, 
among the most deeply penitent of all whom he baptized, 
were many publicans or still more degraded creatures. Though 



114 THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. 

almost every one supposed them to be hopelessly lost, they 
were still capable of being lifted up. He saw with indignation 
how the priests and upper classes stayed awa} r in indifference. 
Was not the eagerness of these sinners to be allowed an en- 
trance into the kingdom of God enough to shame them into 
better things? 1 While the religious and respectable classes, 
as a rule, showed so much less zeal than he would have ex- 
pected, he beheld the masses, humble and believing, stream- 
ing to the baptism. What a contrast between the different 
opinions entertained about the Baptist ! What a rich store of 
knowledge of human nature might here be gleaned ! 

This stay b}' the Jordan exercised a decisive influence on 
Jesus in his choice of a career and his conception of the task 
of his life. For here a resolution came to maturity which 
must long have been half formed within him, though hitherto 
his surroundings, and especially the influence of his relatives, 
had been unfavorable to its development. Henceforth he 
would devote his undivided powers to his people and to the 
kingdom of God. The impulse he received from the Bap- 
tist's preaching finally decided him. 

The influence which John exercised upon Jesus was indeed 
powerful. We may note in passing that the metaphor used 
by Jesus of the good and the bad tree, the latter of which is 
cut down and cast into the fire, and other such expressions, 
remind us of the language of John ; 2 and again, that Jesus, 
like John, gathered round him a circle of personal disciples, 
like him despised riches, and urged his followers to fling 
away whatever might be a hindrance to their entering into 
the kingdom of God, and in many other points reminds us of 
his predecessor. But it is a far more significant fact that at 
the beginning of his ministry he not only accepted as the 
voice of God the cry from the Baptist's mouth, "Repent, for 
the kingdom of heaven is at hand ! " but felt it laid as a word 
of God upon his own lips too. 3 

But, though now resolved, he waited till his time should 
come before he set his hand to the task. He could not work 
under John, and would not work in opposition to him. He 
could not even become his disciple, or long remain in his 
immediate neighborhood. For in course of time, though his 
admiration of him did not diminish, he felt ever more and more 
distinctly that a great chasm yawned between himself and 

1 Matthew xxi. 32. 

2 Matthew vii. 18-20 ; Luke xiii. 7-9. See, also, Luke xi. 1. 

* Matthew iv. 17, compare iii. 2. See also Matthew x. 7 ; Mark vi. 12. 



THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. 115 

the prophet of the wilderness. This God of judgment, whose 
name could only rouse a shuddering dread, was not the God 
of Jesus. He had received far other impressions of the Most 
High than those of burning wrath, and his heart bore other 
thoughts toward Him than that of awe-struck terror. He 
perceived in the set prayers and fasts which John prescribed 
a spirit of legalism and formality which could never enlist 
his sympathy ; and even as to the baptism itself, he began to 
think that too much stress was laid upon it. As time went 
on, Jesus found himself less and less at home in this circle of 
ideas. We picture him drawing more and more completely 
back during the last period of John's career in the Transjor- 
danic district, but still remaining near him, not far from the 
river. Perhaps, however, the whole period of his connec- 
tion with John was shorter than might be supposed, for he 
was certainly one of his later hearers. Meanwhile he was 
preparing himself b} T observing human nature and the signs 
of the times, by pondering in solitude over the impressions 
he received, b}~ contemplation and prayer, for the task of his 
life. Thus he completed his preparation for his work, and 
gained a clear conception of the way in which he must do 
it, and the class to whom he must appeal. And when his 
hour struck, he was ready. 

From very early times the baptism of Jesus has been a 
source of great perplexity to the Christian community, — a 
sufficient proof that it is no invention ; and even now it 
seems a strange contradiction to most Christians that the 
Christ himself should have begged his predecessor to admit 
him among the citizens of his own kingdom, and that the sin- 
less one should have received the baptism of repentance. 
For us, indeed, these difficulties do not exist, though we can 
quite understand and appreciate them. Jesus was not the 
Christ as }et ; and as to his repentance, the very purity and 
grandeur of his moral and spiritual nature must have made 
his conscience all the more tender, his self-accusation for 
even the slightest defect in zeal or in obedience all the louder, 
his sorrow for the least departure from his moral ideal, the 
smallest unfaithfulness to his calling to divine perfection, all 
the keener. And we must remember that the limitations of 
human nature necessarily imply some defect or imperfection, 
and that progress and development are impossible unless a 
lower grade of holiness and love, a certain defectiveness not 
perceived at the time perhaps but lamented afterwards, has 



116 THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. 

preceded. Again, we must not suppose that the expression 
of penitence required b} r John resembled the auricular con- 
fession made to a Roman Catholic priest ; and without hav- 
ing any such gross trespasses to confess as we call sins, 
surely Jesus may have had an humble consciousness that he 
was not perfect in goodness, that he had faltered or stum- 
bled on the path of faith, had been tardy or impatient on his 
way through life. Thus in later da}^s he still emphatically de- 
clined the name of honor, c ' good Master ; " x and in the same 
spirit he is represented in the New Testament itself as ex- 
posed to every kind of temptation, as still requiring to learn 
obedience, and as being made perfect only by the sharpest 
test of suffering. 2 

But however simple this may seem to us, in former times 
the baptism of Jesus was a great stumbling-block to the 
faithful. Legend, however, can account for any thing ! As- 
sumptions and conjectures entirely without foundation were 
soon consolidated into a narrative which explained how it 
was that Jesus took such an extraordinary step, and what it 
was that really happened at his baptism. Thus it was said, 
for instance, that Jesus did not go to Judaea of his own ac- 
cord at all. A curious narrative, written in this sense, is 
still preserved from the " Gospel according to the Hebrews." 
This Gospel was widely circulated in early times. In its 
original form it belonged to the first century, and bore a 
strong resemblance to Matthew ; but the fragments referring 
to the baptism of Jesus, which some of the ecclesiastical 
Fathers have preserved for us, are among the later additions. 
One of these fragments runs as follows : " The Lord's mother 
and brothers said to him, 'John is baptizing for the forgive- 
ness of sins ; let us go to be baptized b} T him.' But he said 
to them. ' What sin have I committed that I should go and 
be baptized by him? Unless, indeed, the words I have just 
uttered are themselves an error.'" The inventors of this 
story did not see that Ivy making Jesus go up to the Jordan 
at the instigation of others, without desiring it or feeling the 
necessit} T of it himself, they were far from mending matters. 
Such weak conduct is unworthy of a man with a character of 
his own, and is quite foreign to the nature of Jesus. Just as 
unsatisfaci ory is another explanation that has come down 
from antiquity, according to which Jesus came to the Jordan 
not for his own sake, because he desired to be baptized, but 

i Mark x. 17, 18 (Luke xviii. 18, 19). 

2 E.g. Matthew iv. 1, xvi. 23 ; Hebrews ii. 10, 18, iv. 15, v. 7-9. 



THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. 117 

for the sake of others, that they might recognize him as the 
Christ. 

Matthew gives us yet another view of the case, and tells 
us that when Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan, not to 
hear John but simply to be baptized by him, John recog- 
nized him as the Messiah at once, and distinctly refused to 
go with him into the river. " I have need," he said, " to be 
baptized b^y you with the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But 
why should you come to me to be bathed in these waters ? " 
Then Jesus answered, ""Suffer it to be so! Think not of 
me as the Messiah now, for I must submit to your baptism 
as a commandment of God." Upon this John yielded. We 
have no hesitation in absolutely rejecting this story. John 
did not know Jesus ; and even if he had known him, inas- 
much as he was not } T et the Christ, he could not possibly 
have recognized him as such ; and indeed, as a matter of 
fact, he did not do so afterwards. 1 Nor was Jesus at all a 
man after the heart of John. And again, the very next 
verses contradict the story; for in them we read that the 
Spirit came down upon Jesus after his baptism, thus making 
him the Messiah then ; and that John heard a divine voice :it 
the same time proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah, though, 
according to the preceding verses, he would not have re- 
quired any such testimony.' 2 We might further ask whether 
the prophet of the wilderness still needed the baptism of the 
Spirit, 3 and how he could go on with his work after this 
scene just as he had done before. Finally, the objection 
already urged holds good in this case also : the inventors of 
the story overlooked the fact that in making Jesus wish for 
baptism, not from an} T need that he himself experienced but 
from a sense of its fitness, as though it were a form which he 
must respect, a so-called religious duty, they were sacrificing 
his integrity and independence. For to take part in any 
religious ceremon}', simply because it is the proper thing to 
do, without having any feeling, or attaching airy significance 
to it ourselves, may be quite in the spirit of the Jewish Chris- 
tianity which invented the stoiy, but is certainly condemned 
by the spirit of pure Christianity. Jesus is the last man 
from whom we should expect such formality and legalism. 

In still earlier times the baptism of Jesus had been turned 
to account by tradition in another manner, and with a weightier 

1 Matthew xi. 2. _ 2 Matthew iii. 16, 17. 

8 Compare Luke i. 15. 



118 THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. 

purpose. It was made into an event of supreme significance, 
the occasion upon which Jesus received the office of Messiah. 
Thus Mark informs us that Jesus, on coming up out of the 
river (Luke adds that he was praying), 1 saw the heavens 
open, and the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, come down 
upon him, while the voice of God cried through the open 
heavens, "Thou art my beloved Son! In thee I am well 
pleased ! " The meaning is obvious ; namely, that at this 
moment God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with 
power, 2 bestowed on him the needful gifts, and exalted him 
to the rank of Messiah (Anointed) ; at this moment, there- 
fore, Jesus received his call, and first felt that he was the 
Messiah. 

The origin of the story is easy to explain. The Holy 
Spirit, as the life-giving power of God, was compared, in the 
metaphorical language of the Jews, to a clove, according to 
the expression in the first account of the creation, " The 
Spirit of God brooded over the waters." 3 Thus "the voice 
of the dove " in the Song of Solomon 4 was taken to mean 
the voice of the Holy Spirit. Hence the descent of a dove 
upon Jesus. But this merely explains the form of the vision. 
As to its substance, inasmuch as the Christians, who were 
anointed like the Christ with the Holy Spirit, 5 were supposed 
to receive this spirit at their baptism, it seemed natural to 
think that Jesus had also received it when he underwent this 
ceremoiry. And nothing seemed more probable than that he, 
like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, 6 should have received his 
call in a vision. Perhaps we should add that apparently 
many of the Jews expected that the Christ, though already 
born and existing somewhere on earth, would remain un- 
known to every one, 7 — would not even know what he was 
himself, until Elijah came to anoint him and to make him 
known to all men. Then, again, to the early Christians the 
following reasoning would be conclusive : Before his baptism 
Jesus had never manifested, and cannot therefore have ever 
had, any superhuman gifts. After his baptism he began his 
public career, and soon appeared as the Christ. Something 
must have happened, then, at the moment of his baptism, to 
change him from an ordinary man into the Messiah. Or, 
looking at the thing from another point of view, John had 
consecrated him as a subject of the kingdom of God ; but he 

i Luke iii. 21. 2 Acts x. 38. 8 Genesis i. 2. 

4 Song of Solomon ii. 12. 5 1 John ii. 20, 27. 

6 Isaiah vi. ; Jeremiah i. ; Ezekiel i. 7 Compare John vii. 27. 



THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. 119 

came np out of the water as its king. How could this be, 
had not God chosen the very moment when John was baptiz- 
ing Jesus to fulfil that prophetic assurance that the Spirit of 
the Lord should rest upon the Messiah? 1 And this explana- 
tion also solved the problem presented by his entirely unique 
personality, his grandeur and exaltation above all men. 2 

But if this is how the stoiy came into existence, it obviously 
rests on a system of interpretation and a set of ideas which 
we cannot accept. To estimate it fairly, we must remember 
that in those days no S3 T stematic study of the laws of the 
human mind had been made, and the quicks-responsive and 
swiftly-kindled enthusiasm of the Oriental character fostered 
the illusion that God usually imparted his highest gifts sud- 
denty. 3 To us, however, it seems necessarily to follow from 
the laws of human nature that man's spiritual development 
must be gradual in eveiy case, including that of Jesus, and 
cannot proceed by leaps or supernatural gusts of inspiration. 
Moreover, though the whole scene is in perfect harmon3 T with 
the Israelite's conception of the universe, neither our knowl- 
edge of Nature nor our knowledge of God suffers us to con- 
ceive of the heavens opening to let the Spirit of God, in the 
form of a dove, and the voice of God, pass through ! It is 
true that even Mark himself represents the whole thing as 
a vision ; but in the mouth of the Biblical writers a vision 
means something veiy different from what we should call an 
illusion. It means something which really occurred, though 
visible only to the enlightened eye of him to whom the vision 
was vouchsafed. 4 Nor can we believe that Jesus ever had 
visions. His mind was so clear and health}', his temperament 
so firm and uniform, his self-control so complete and invinci- 
ble, that we cannot conceive of his being subject to those 
ecstatic transports, that more or less morbid nervous exalta- 
tion, that passive submission to a vivid imagination, in which 
visions take their rise. 5 Then we must observe that the 
voice from heaven utters words taken from two passages from 
the Old Testament, both of which the Christians applied to 
the Messiah, but which had not really the slightest connection 
with each other. The first, " Thou art my Son ! " 6 — or, in 
full, as we shall presently see, ;t Thou art my Son, this day 

i Isaiah xi. 2. 2 g ee p. 41. 

3 Numbers xi. 25; 1 Samuel x. 6, 10, xvi. 13, xix. 20, 23; 2 Kings ii. 9 ff.' 
Matthew iv. 1; Acts ii. 2-4, viii. 17, 39, et seg. 

4 2 Kings vi. 17 ; 2 Corinthians xii. 2, 3. 

5 Compare Numbers xii. 6-8; Deuteronomy xxxiv. 10. 6 Psalm ii. 7. 



120 THE BAPTISM OF JESUS. 

have I begotten thee ! " — refers to the ideal of the Israelitish 
king ; the other, — ' ' My beloved in whom I am well 
pleased!" 1 — to the servant of God, or the consecrated 
Israel. 2 Finally, this story of the baptism is inconsistent 
with the sequel of the histoiy ; for even after the baptism 
Jesus did not appear as the Messiah for a considerable time, 
nor did he remind John of what is here said to have taken 
place on an occasion when it would have been entirely to the 
purpose for him to have done so. 3 In a word, it is perfectly 
easy to explain the origin of this stor} T from the faith of the 
early Christians, but quite impossible to attach any historical 
value to it. 

The first Gospel modifies the picture, and with no great 
dexterity. In Mark, as we have seen, the opening of the 
heavens, the descent of the Spirit as a dove, and the voice of 
God are represented as taking place in a vision. In Luke, 
who elsewhere converts a vision into a palpable fact, they 
become events perceptible to all present. In Matthew it is 
still a vision, but one vouchsafed to John, and not to Jesus ; 
for the voice does not say, " Thou art," as addressing Jesus, 
but " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," — 
as addressing John concerning Jesus. 4 We have already 
pointed out the inconsistency between this and the preceding 
verses, according to which John had already recognized Jesus 
as the Messiah as soon as he saw him. The whole repre- 
sentation is evidently confused and inverted. It might have 
been more reasonable to represent John as having bowed down 
before Jesus after the baptism and the miraculous sign that 
followed; and, accordingly, the "Gospel of the Hebrews" 
gives yet another version of the affair. ""When the people 
were baptized, Jesus also came, and was baptized by John. 
And as he came up out of the water the heavens were opened, 
and he saw the Spirit in the form of a clove come down and 
enter into him. And there came a voice from heaven saying, 
' Thou art my beloved Son ; in thee am I well pleased ! ' And 
again, ' This day have I begotten thee ! ' And immediately the 
place about them was lightened by a great fire [a fire kindled 
in the Jordan, 5 as we are told elsewhere]. And when John 
(who had not seen the dove or heard the voice, which were for 
Jesus alone) perceived the fire, he said to Jesus, ' Who art 

1 Isaiah xlii. 1. Compare Matthew xii. 18 ; Luke iv. 18, 19 ; Acts iv. 27. 

2 Compare Matthew xvii. 5 (Mark ix. 7; Luke ix. 35); 2 Peter i. 17. 
8 Matthew xi. 2-6. 4 Matthew iii. 17. 

6 Compare Isaiah lxiv. 2. 



THE BAFTISM OF JESUS. 12l 

thou, Lord?' And again a voice from heaven said to him, 
'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ! ' Then 
John fell down on his face before him and said, ' I praj T thee, 
Lord, do thou baptize me ! ' But Jesus restrained him, saying, 
' Let it be, for thus must all that has been prophesied of me 
be fulfilled.' " 

We shall not dwell upon this matter further. History does 
not tell us that any thing special occurred at the baptism of 
Jesus. The fact that John went on, as before, preaching and 
baptizing, and never directed his hearers to Jesus ; and that 
his school continued its independent existence, expecting the 
dawn of the Messianic age, in fasting and prayer, after Jesus 
had begun his work, — this speaks clearly enough. 

We have seen the formative power of legend at work, and 
can well understand that when once engaged upon this sub- 
ject it would not soon relinquish it. This much is certain, 
that however strangely the early Christians were mistaken in 
supposing that Jesus first received the Spirit when he had 
come to man's estate, and received it mechanically and at one 
definite moment, they were not mistaken in the main point 
of their faith ; namely, that Jesus was a man entrusted by 
God with an overflowing w r ealth of the fairest spiritual gifts, 
and was tiuly inspired, led, and governed by God's holy 
spirit. What the prophets had only possessed in part was 
given in all its fulness to Jesus. This thought is beautifully 
expressed, though under a somewhat fantastic form, in 
another fragment of the " Gospel of the Hebrews," so often 
mentioned already. "And it came to pass, when the Lord 
had come up out of the water, that the whole fountain of the 
Holy Spirit came down upon him, and rested on him, saying, 
' My Son, in all the prophets have I looked forth to thee, that 
thou shouldst come, and that I should find in thee my place 
of rest. For thou art my place of rest ; thou art my first- 
born Son, who rules to eternity ! ' " 



122 JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK. 

Chapter IX. 

JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK, 

Matthew IV 12-25; VIII. 14-16.1 

JOHN had transferred the scene of his activitj* to Peraea, 
perhaps because he was impeded or threatened in Judaea, 
perhaps for some other reason. But if, when he left the Ro- 
man province and escaped from the jurisdiction of the Roman 
authorities, he imagined that he would be safe on the territoiy 
of Herod Antipas and would be able to work on undisturbed, 
then he was wofully mistaken. At the command of the prince 
he was suddenly thrown into chains, and, before his followers 
knew airv thing about it or had time to make any attempt to 
rescue him, he was carried off under an armed escort to the 
fortress of Machaerus, east of the Dead Sea, at a distance of 
about twenty miles from the Jordan. 

What was the reason for this deed of violence ? Probably 
Herod was afraid of John's influence on the masses. These 
gatherings of the people might easily lead to insurrections, 
and he thought it well to take precautionary measures. 
Such at least is the reason assigned by Josephus, and there 
is much to be said for his version of the affair. The Messi- 
anic movement, we must remember, bore a political charac- 
ter. Excited b}- the prospect of the kingdom of God being 
founded, the multitude might easily conceive the idea of has- 
tening the event by deposing Antipas or expelling the Ro- 
mans. For the same reason when, some time afterwards, the 
person and preaching of Jesus had powerfully excited the 
Messianic expectation in Galilee, Herod attempted to take his 
life also. 2 

The Gospels give a different account. John, they sa} T , had 
rebuked Herod for an evil deed. 3 Herod had been on a visit 
to his half-brother, who was also called Herod, — not Philip, 
as Mark sa3 r s, — and had fallen in love with his wife Herodias. 
She was an ambitious woman, and was tortured by the thought 
that her husband wore no crown ; so she and Herod Antipas 
secretly agreed to release themselves from their present con- 
sorts and marry each other. When Antipas returned to hi» 

1 Mark i. 14-39; Luke iv. 14, 15, 31-v. 11. 2 Luke xiii. 31. 

8 Matthew xiv. 3, 4 (Mark vi. 17, 18; Luke iii. 19, 20). 



JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK. 123 

residence at Tiberias, his wife, who had in some way discov- 
ered the plot, managed to find an excuse for escaping to her 
father, the Arabian king Aretas. Soon after this, to the in- 
dignation of all right-thinking Israelites, the proposed mar- 
riage was contracted. For this offence, according to the 
Evangelists, John rebuked the prince severely, and was thrown 
into prison in revenge. 

But this is very improbable, for as long as the Baptist was 
at large it is not likely that he ever came into personal con- 
tact with Herod. Perhaps the Gospels confound the cause 
of his death 1 with that of his imprisonment. 

Jesus was probably still in the neighborhood of the Jordan 
when he received the news that a t3Tant's hand had been 
laid on the herald of God's kingdom, and had interrupted 
that work which should have ended only with the establish- 
ment of the kingdom itself ! He could have no hesitation as 
to his own course now. He had long desired to work directly 
for the kingdom of God, and this news decided him. He 
could not have held back long under any circumstances, but 
now all hesitation was at an end. He returned at once to 
Galilee to take up the work of John. For in every respect 
that work was far from its completion. Israel was still 
unprepared for the coming of the Lord. The call to repent- 
ance had not 3'et found its way to all the sons of Abraham. 
Above all, the kingdom of God was not yet founded. Should 
the task remain unfinished for want of some one to take it 
up, the result of John's preaching would be swallowed up 
like a stream in the sand, and absolute failure would over- 
take his more than heroic efforts. In vain would he have 
resolved to be more than a prophet of better days, more than 
the messenger of a golden age to come ; in vain would he have 
striven by his own bold deed of faith to hasten the dawn of 
that better time ! 

Jesus could not endure the thought. The moment had 
now come for him to act. The path was plain. God sum 
moned him ! He could have no doubt except as to the 
method he should adopt ; and after what he had seen in the 
last few weeks or months he need not hesitate long oven as 
to this. 

He would not begin his work in the wilderness. He him- 
self had no need of rigorous abstinence and mortification, 
and attached small value to them for others. His heart 
drew him to his fellow-men. He would not wait for them 

1 See chapter xxii. p. 270. 



124 JESUS BEGTNS HIS WORK. 

to come to him, but would seek them out himself. Nor 
would he fix his abode in Judaea. He had perhaps seen a 
good deal of the dark side of life in Judaea recently. The 
whole district took its tone from Jerusalem, the headquarters 
of orthodox} 7 . There formalism, worship of the letter, nar- 
rowness, spiritual pride, — in a word, all the characteristic 
failings of Judaism, — reached their greatest height. Jesus 
haA evidently conceived a strong aversion to Judaea, and long 
afterwards the thought of going to Jerusalem filled him with 
such apprehension that he only resolved to take the journey 
after long hesitation and with the darkest forebodings. Then 
of course he was naturally attached to the land of his birth, 
and preferred the district in which he had lived so long to 
any other. In Galilee he was at home. 

It has often been suggested that Jesus returned to Galilee 
as a matter of prudence, to escape the plots of Herod. But 
at this time he was quite unknown, and had therefore noth- 
ing to fear. It is true that his taking up the work of John 
might ultimately expose him to the utmost danger, but Galilee 
was itself in the territory of Antipas, and, indeed, he settled 
near his capital. 

For reasons easily understood, he determined not to begin 
his work in so secluded a spot as Nazareth. Not that this 
place was so completely cut off from the world, or its inhabi- 
tants so narrow-minded and uncultivated, as is usually main- 
tained. The populousness of the district makes such a 
supposition unlikely, and the culture of the Nazarene carpen- 
ter's famil} 7 furnishes an instance to the contrary. 1 Still the 
situation of the place was not favorable to the purpose of 
Jesus. There was too little intercourse with strangers there, 
too little interchange of thought, for it to offer a suitable basis 
for his work. For this purpose he chose one of the centres 
of Galilaean life, — not the luxurious Tiberias, but the thrifty 
Capernaum. An additional reason for this choice was that 
he could hardly expect to find much faith in Nazareth, for the 
people there were too much accustomed to him. 

Capernaum was situated on the western coast of the Gali- 
laean Sea, called also the Sea of Gennesareth, or Tiberias. 
The exact site is uncertain. Nature was no less lovely and 
fertile here than in the district in which Jesus had spent his 
early life. The lake itself, through which the Jordan flows, 
is about fourteen miles long and six miles broad, and is almost 
completely shut in by mountains, which rise to a considerable 
i See pp. 88, 91, 92. 



JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK. 125 

height, especially to the south and east. Its clear waters, 
transparent to the bottom, are generally calm and smooth, 
but are sometimes agitated by violent storms. Fish were 
exceedingly abundant in it, and it was therefore traversed 
day b}- day in every direction b} r a host of fishing- boats that 
covered its surface. The eastern shore is desolate, but the 
western shore — on which Tarichaea, with its forty thousand 
inhabitants, Hamath or Emmaus, Tiberias, the capital of 
Herod Antipas, Magdala, Bcthsaida, Chorazin, and Caper- 
naum were situated — is said by travellers to be a perfect 
paradise, and is declared by Josephus to be by far the most 
beautiful and fertile spot in Galilee. This is pre-eminently 
true of lt the land of Gennesareth," — a plain which stretches 
upwards from Magdala (about five miles north of Tiberias) , 
where the hills retreat from the lake in the form of a semi- 
circle. This plain, in which some geographers place Caper- 
naum, while others think it was further north, 1 was said to be 
so rich and varied in its products that it seemed as though 
Nature had challenged the cold, the hot, and the temperate 
climates to bring all their best products there and contend for 
the supremac3 T ! Throughout ten months of the year ripe 
grapes and figs were gathered, and though the fruit-trees 
were so luxuriant, varied, and abundant, the}' could not carry 
away the palm from the magnificent wheat crops. 

Capernaum itself was situated on the commercial highway 
that led from Syria to the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt. 
Moreover, it commanded the carrying trade to and from the 
opposite shore, which had belonged to Philip till his death, — 
an event which took place about this time, — and was then 
added to Syria. 2 For these reasons an excise office was es- 
tablished there, and a Roman garrison was stationed there, 
perhaps to protect or support the officers. 

What a contrast between the entrancing scenery and the 
busy surroundings amidst which Jesus established himself 
and the lonely wilderness which was the scene of John's first 
preaching ! The choice throws a strong light upon the diver- 
gent characters of the two men. Yet Jesus came before his 
hearers with the same message as that of his predecessor, 
though the promise of the near approach of God's kingdom, 
and the demand for repentance, came with a very different 
sound from his lips. And though the short epitome of his 
preaching given by the Evangelists is the same as that of 
John, — - " Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ! " 
i See Map V. 2 See pp. 3, 4. 



126 JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK. 

— we are not- to suppose that Jesus used the same language 
or expressions as did his predecessor. However much he 
availed himself, when addressing the people, of what he had 
heard during his intercourse with John, he alwa} T s retained 
his original^. The meaning of the statement in the Gospels 
doubtless is that Jesus came forward with the same avowed 
and definite purpose as his predecessor had had, and openly 
represented his own work as the continuation of John's. 

Our knowledge of the course of events, as sketched above, 
is chiefly due to the first Gospel, which shows us far more 
distinctly than either Luke or Mark that the news of John's 
imprisonment was the immediate cause of Jesus taking up 
the work and beginning to preach at Capernaum. But 
though we have no hesitation in accepting this account, 
which is supported b} T various considerations, we cannot be 
so sure about some other matters. 

Only to mention a single point : the time at which Jesus 
began his public life cannot be fixed with accuracy, and we 
must be content with knowing that it was certainly not later 
than the early spring of a. d. 34. 1 We are absolutely without 
reliable evidence as to the age which he had reached. Luke 
sa} T s that he was about thirty } T ears old when he was bap- 
tized. 2 But, in the first place, that word "about" leaves a 
considerable margin undecided ; nor can we tell what time 
elapsed between the baptism and the public appearance of 
Jesus ; and, in the second place, the statement itself was as 
little based on real knowledge, and deserves as little confi- 
dence, as the supposition of John that Jesus was between 
forty and fifty. 3 Luke simply means to sa} r that Jesus had 
not long attained to manhood. As for ourselves we can 
hardly even make a guess. There was no fixed age at which 
public teachers assumed their office among the Jews ; and 
even had there been any rule on the subject, neither Jesus 
nor any other prophet would have suffered himself to be 
bound by it. All we can say is that Jesus was certainty not 
aged ; for his impetuous spirit, 4 the close connection he 
retained with his family, 5 and the manner in which the Naza- 
renes thought of and acted towards him, — speaking of him 
as one who had but recently left the paternal home, 6 — all 
argue against such a supposition. On the other hand, his 

1 See pp. 10, 96. 2 Luke iii. 23. » John viii. 57. 

4 Compare, for example, Matthew xi. 20 ff., xxi. 12, xxii. 13 ft. 
* Matthew xii. 46. 6 Matthew xiii. 54 ft. 



JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK. 127 

matured experience and manifold knowledge of human na- 
ture, 1 together with the position he assumes towards his 
people and his disciples, 2 forbid us to think of him as youth- 
ful. There is no prospect of our ever gaining further knowl- 
edge on this point. 

It is equally vain to inquire exactly how Jesus began his 
work. Did he first address himself to a small circle of 
acquaintances, or did he teach in public from the first? The 
latter is more probable. It is not likely that Jesus began to 
work in secret among a few individuals ; for, though we shall 
presently see how gladly he would toil to restore a single 
wanderer to the path of virtue, and how to the very last he 
devoted his thoughts and powers to the good of single indi- 
viduals, yet, after all, his message was destined in the first 
instance for the whole people of Israel. We shall presently 
see that publicity was as much in keeping with the character 
of the age as with the purposes of Jesus ; and he could not 
have been without opportunities of speaking to the people. 
At present we need only observe that the account of the call- 
ing of the disciples, which Matthew and Mark both of them 
place at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, confirms us 
in the opinion we have expressed. 

The account referred to is as follows : — 

Not long after Jesus had settled at Capernaum and begun 
to preach, he was walking, on a certain da}-, by the sea of 
Gennesareth, and saw Simon and Andrew, the sons of the 
fisherman Jona, bus}' at work. He stood still, and summoned 
them to join him, and leave their calling for a nobler task, — 
"Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men!" 
They obeyed him at once, and left their nets to follow him. 
A little further on he saw two other fishermen, James and 
John, the sons of Zebedee, busy mending the nets with their 
father in his boat. He called them also, and they obeyed. 
Rising from the boat, and leaA-ing their father with his hired 
assistants behind, they joined themselves to Jesus and the 
others. 

The impression made upon us by this narrative certainly is 
that the connection between Jesus and these four disciples 
was formed on the spot, and without any thing to lead up to 
it. A similar representation is found in the Old Testament, 
with regard to Elijah and Elisha. 3 But it stands to reason 
that they must really have had some mutual knowledge of 

i Matthew xiii. 12, 19 ff., ct seq. 

2 Matthew x. 24, 25, 37, xi. 16, xxiii. 8, 10. 3 1 Kings xix. 19-21. 



128 JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK. 

each other, and that Jesus had alread}' excited some atten- 
tion. The words in which he summoned them are unmis- 
takably genuine, and imply that he was already known to 
some extent as a public teacher. It was in this capacity, and 
this alone, that they joined him. We must also suppose that 
Jesus, on his side, had already noted these four men as likely 
to make earnest and zealous preachers of the kingdom of 
God. Such mutual acquaintance is most easily explained on 
the supposition that Jesus had already been living some time 
in Capernaum, — as Matthew, but not Mark, informs us was 
the case. It is also very possible that the Gospels make the 
calling of the sons of Zebedee follow too quickly upon that 
of the suns of Jona ; but it is highly probable that these four 
were really the first disciples of Jesus. 

This simple figure of speech about " catching men" 1 was 
afterwards elaborated into an emblematic account of the call- 
ing of the first disciples, which ran as follows : — 

Jesus was preaching by the edge of the sea, and the num- 
ber of his hearers gradually increased until those behind 
pressed forward upon those in front, and compelled Jesus to 
look about for some more convenient place to sit in. Now it 
so happened that there were two boats lying empty on the 
strand, while the fishermen to whom they belonged were 
washing their nets. Jesus got into one of them, and calling 
its owner, Simon, begged him to push off a little. Then he 
sat down in the stern of the boat, and spoke to the people 
who stood upon the shore. When he had ended his address, 
he turned to Simon and told him to put out to sea and cast 
his net. "Master," he replied, " it will avail me nothing, 
for we have not caught anj' thing all the night ; but if }*ou 
wish it, we can try once more." But, behold ! when he had 
cast the net it was filled so full that it began to break. Then 
they beckoned to their companions, James and John, in the 
second boat, to come to help them. The} 7 drew the net up 
cautiously to empty it, and the two boats were laden till they 
were ready to sink. Filled with dread b} T this overwhelming 
proof that Jesus was a messenger of God, Simon Peter fell 
down upon his knees and cried, "Depart from me, Lord ! 
for I am a sinful man." He was afraid that the presence of 
Jesus would bring some fearful judgment upon him ; 2 for 
he was not one of the devout, but simply an ordinary man 
of the world. And both the other fishermen, and, indeed, 
all who were present, were filled with the same terror. But 
1 Compare Proverbs xi. 30 b. 2 Compare 1 Kings xvii. 18. 



JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK. 129 

Jesus quieted their fears. "Fear not," he said to Simon, 
"henceforth thou shalt catch men." Then they gave up 
their occupation and every thing they had to follow Jesus. 

We must certainly take this narrative as having a symboli- 
cal meaning. How far we can safely go in this direction is 
not so certain. This much is clear, however, that the unsuc- 
cessful fishing represents the natural incapacity of the disci- 
ples, and their marvellous subsequent success the fruits 
of their preaching as emissaries of Jesus. Wo are tempted 
to suppose that when the legend represents the disciples 
as casting their nets near the shore to no purpose, but 
finding abundant success in the open sea, it refers to the 
meagre results of the preaching to the Jews and the countless 
multitudes won among the heathen. Even if this is going 
too far, we may very well believe that the objection urged by 
Simon represents the Jewish narrowness which the Apostles 
had to overcome, and that the putting out into the deep 
waters, where the}' take such a marvellous draught of fish, 
typifies their mission to the whole world. 1 But whatever 
ma} T be thought of the details, it is quite certain that this 
story is an imitation or working up of the previous one. 
The calling of the four fishermen is the original, and the 
miraculous draught of fishes a copy. This belief is con 
firmed, if it needs confirmation, b} T the occurrence of a sini- 
lar emblematic or miraculous stoiy, of closely analogous 
meaning, in the fourth Gospel. Simon Peter and the sons of 
Zebedee are again the chief actors, but the time is changed. 
The event is placed after the resurrection of Jesus, when the 
Apostles had to be«;in their task as preachers of the kingdom 
of God. 2 

And here we must say a few words about these emblematic 
stories in general. The} r were very common among the 
Christian communities of the first century, and have left 
abundant traces in the Gospels. The consequence is that 
we are always coming across representations or accounts of 
things which excite our attention by their very singular char- 
acter, and by invariably containing something marvellous, 
often something impossible. But when we examine them 
more closely, we discover that they are only intended to set 
forth some idea or some truth, and are in fact elaborated 
figures of speech or emblems. Such a mode of exposition, 
strikes us as very strange, but it was common enough in the 
East ; for these men could not deal with abstract ideas, bu'j 
i Acts x. 9 ff. 2 j hn xxi. 1-14. 

6* 



IttO JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK. 

always clothed their thoughts in some visible form, and drew 
pictures instead of arguing and proving. They endeavored 
to work upon the feelings through the imagination and not, 
as we generally do, through the intellect ; and it was from 
the resources of a luxuriant imagination that they borrowed 
the colors with which to paint their pictures. No one will 
deny that this style of address or narrative is better calcu- 
lated than any other to excite and fascinate the attention. 
The first preachers of Christianity, moreover, were specially 
led to adopt this mode of expression by the style of teaching 
usually selected b} T their Master. He generally taught in 
parables, and had, for instance, worked out this ver}^ image 
of the " fishers of men" in the story of the great net that 
gathered in every kind of fish. 1 The extreme love of emblems 
and parables, which the believers of the first centuries so 
constantly displayed, dates from the earliest period of Chris- 
tianity. 2 The last book of the New Testament consists of 
one unbroken series of these emblematic pictures. 

But we must be careful to distinguish, in this connection, 
between the original narrators and our Evangelists. The 
former were, of course, fully aware of the meaning of the 
figures they selected, but the latter had often lost their true 
significance and accepted them in the literal sense. Hence, 
in taking them up into their Gospels they often omitted some 
essential point, laid too great stress upon another, or even 
made incongruous additions. It may well be believed that 
it is no easy task to recover the true and ancient meaning of 
these stories. 

While Jesus was thus drawing a few personal disciples 
round him, he lost no opportunity of addressing more nu- 
merous hearers. We still have an account of a certain Sab- 
bath that he spent at Capernaum, and on which he went to 
the synagogue, accompanied by his four disciples, to address 
the people. The impression he made was overpowering. 
It was not the curiosity roused by an almost unknown 
preacher, or the simple eloquence with which he spoke, or 
the glorious future that formed his subject, so much as the 
glow of his intense conviction, the sacred passion of his 
inspiration, and his whole attitude towards the recognized 
authorities, that excited such amazement. Even the most 
eminent of the Scribes invariably appealed in confirmation of 

i Matthew xiii. 47, 48. 

2 See, for example, 1 Corinthians v. 7; Revelation i. 13-16, &c. 



JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK. 131 

their assertions to some passage of Scripture, to some tradi- 
tional saying, or to the authority of some great teacher. 
But this new preacher seemed to speak on his own authority, 
as though he had a higher right than learning or study could 
confer ; nay, as though he were the equal of those prophets 
of old who received their messages direct from the Most 
High. 1 

An example of the deep impression made by the presence 
and the words of Jesus is furnished Iry what follows. In the 
synagogue there happened to be a man possessed by a demon. 
He had not escaped the general excitement ; and when Jesus 
had ended, and eveiy one began to talk over what he had 
said, the evil spirit fell upon its victim, and he leaped up and 
shrieked, " Ha ! what have we to do with you, Jesus of Naza- 
reth ? Are you come to cast me and my fellow-demons into 
the fire of Gehenna? I know who } t ou are! You are the 
Hoi}- One of God ! " All eyes were turned to the spot ^Y hence 
these words arose ; but Jesus, looking steadily at the man, 
and addressing the demon in a tone of stern rebuke, said to 
him, " Silence ! come out of him ! " The man fell, shrieking 
and convulsed, upon the ground, and the evil spirit had gone 
out of him. Then he stood up, delivered from his tormentor 
and unharmed. The amazement of all present knew no 
bounds. What could it mean? Were ever such words of 
might heard before ? Even the very devils obeyed when he 
commanded ! And the news of what had taken place spread 
like fire through the whole country round. 

It was but natural that Jesus should leave the synagogue 
as soon as possible after this event. Besides, the evening 
was already closing in. And so, accompanied by the four 
disciples, henceforth inseparably attached to him, he went to 
the house of Simon, who was a married man, and whose 
mother-in-law lived with him. It happened that this mother- 
in-law was ill in bed at the time with fever, and as soon as 
Jesus heard it he went up to her, took her hand (Luke adds 
that he rebuked the fever, which was very violent) and 
raised her up. The fever left her at once, and in grateful 
joy she began to prepare the evening meal. But these two 
cures were not all ; for as soon as the sun was set and the 
Sabbath over, a host of* sick and possessed were brought to 
him. The whole city came out to see him, and a great crowd 
collected round the door. He healed many sufferers from 
various ailments, and expelled a number of evil spirits. The 

1 Compare Matthew vii. 28, 29. 



132 JEStJS BEGINS HIS WORK. 

latter knew that he was the Messiah, and he had to forbid 
them to speak, for they sometimes cried out, "You are the 
Son of God ! " 

What are we to think of this story? It need hardly be said 
that Ave cannot accept it as it stands. We utterly disbelieve 
in actual devils living in men; it is absurd to suppose that 
these spirits recognized and proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah, 
when we know that he himself had no such idea as yet ; 
and we cannot believe that all the inhabitants of the city 
brought out their sick, and that Jesus played the part of a 
medicine-man ! But, on the other hand, it would be going too 
far utterly to reject the whole story. It is quite possible that 
Jesus preached in the synagogue at Capernaum, and indeed, 
even if it were not expressly stated, w T e should almost take 
for granted that he made himself heard in the house of prayer 
before he had been settled long in the city ; nor would there 
be airy more suitable or probable place in which he could utter 
his first exhortation. Again, the amazement he is said to have 
caused, and the deep impression he created, are only what we 
should expect. 

We may go still further. It would be a mistake to deny 
that Jesus ever healed those "possessed bj T devils." We 
must remember that in those days, and especially among the 
Jews, this " possession " was a kind of epidemic. Josephus 
makes repeated mention of it. The causes of its prevalence 
cannot be fixed with certainty ; but we ma}' well believe that 
the state of nervous tension caused by the depressing circum- 
stances of the times, together with the feverish expectation of 
deliverance, and the consequent religious revival, 1 was a pow- 
erful ally of the prevalent superstition, — and these morbid 
spiritual phenomena are very infectious. "Possession" was 
at bottom a nervous derangement, which showed itself some- 
times in temporary or permanent insanity, sometimes in fits 
of deep depression, sometimes in convulsive attacks at regu- 
larly recurring intervals, and sometimes even in loss of con- 
trol over the members, resulting in temporary deafness, 
blindness, or paralysis. Now it was customary in ancient 
times to ascribe both madness and epileps}' to the immediate 
influence or actual presence in the bod} r of the patient of 
some deity or spirit. It was for this" reason that epileps}' was 
called the morbus sacer, or " sacred disease." A similar belief 
prevailed among the Israelites ; for during the early centuries 
of their renewed national existence they had borrowed aD 

1 See pp. 4, 6, 96-99, 105, 108. 



JESUS BEGINS HIS W0EK. 133 

elaborate belief in angels and demons from the Persians, and 
had worked it out more or less independently themselves. 
The Jews, then, definitely believed that evil spirits, subject to 
Satan, dwelt in the bodies of the "possessed," and tortured 
them ; and to their influence they ascribed all the phenomena 
above referred to, and in general all diseases that seemed 
strange or mysterious, including perhaps the ague, which is 
still a riddle to the medical men of our own times. Thus 
Luke can saj T of Jesus, as he stood by the bed of Simon's 
mother-in-law, that he rebuked the ague as if it had had a 
personal existence, — as if it were a demon and had to be 
expelled. 

It is true that, above four centuries earlier than the time 
of which we are speaking, the great Hippocrates of Cos had 
laid the firm foundations of medical science among the Greeks, 
and had combated this very superstition in his work ' ' On 
the Sacred Disease." But the Jews were much behind their 
age in this matter. They fled to the general refuge of igno- 
rance, therefore, and ascribed a supernatural origin to most 
diseases. The necessaiy consequence was that they neglected 
natural remedies in favor of magical incantations or elixirs, 
and other such devices. And so there were a number of 
exorcists (or expellers of devils) in the country, and some of 
them, of course, were more successful than others. The Es- 
senes appear to have paid especial attention to the art of 
exorcism. Josephus tells us that Solomon had received power 
over the demons from God, so that he could heal the sick, 
and that he had collected and handed down the magic for- 
mulae of exorcism. "This art," continues he, "still flour- 
ishes among us greatly." The Talmud and later authorities 
also attribute to Solomon a book on this branch of the healing 
art, though really the idea of possession was not so much as 
dreamed of in his time. Josephus tells us that in the neigh- 
borhood of Machserus a root called baaras is to be found ; 
that it is like a flame of fire in color ; that it throws out shin- 
ing rays by night ; that an} T one who gathers it, without cer- 
tain fanciful and grotesque precautions which he rehearses, is 
sure to lose his life, but that it is an infallible means of ex- 
pelling the evil spirits which have taken possession of human 
beings. 

We must not be too hard on the superstitious contempora- 
ries of Jesus ; for we must remember that, however absurd 
we maj T think the belief in the immediate connection between 
unclean spirits and human beings, and the influence of evil 



134 JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK. 

powers upon human life, these beliefs maintained themselves 
for centuries in the Christian Church. In remote country dis- 
tricts, and the neglected quarters of our great cities, people 
still believe in witches and wizards, and attribute the diseases 
of children or animals to magic. But not so very long ago the 
belief was universal. Almost two centuries after the Reform- 
ation, Balthazar Bekker, a pastor of Amsterdam, published 
his celebrated work, "The Enchanted World" (1691-94), in 
Holland, — at that time the centre of enlightenment and 
science. The purpose of the book was to root out the super- 
stitious belief in witches, enchantment, and all such things, to 
which so many innocent lives were yearly sacrificed ; and the 
result was that Bekker was denounced as an infidel and a 
blasphemer by almost every one, including his fellow-pastors 
and even the professors of the day, while the ecclesiastical 
authorities dismissed him from his post. 

Now when we examine the stories of ' ' possession " contained 
in the Gospels, 1 we find that the symptoms they describe agree 
very well with what may still be observed in the case of persons 
suffering from similar nervous affections. So far, then, we 
need not scruple to accept them as historical. But we must 
be discriminating ; for in the most detailed accounts of exor- 
cisms certain features ma} r be traced which warn us clearly 
enough to adopt a figurative rather than a literal interpreta- 
tion, — features on which the histoiy of Jesus throws no light, 
and which unmistakably betray the age of the Apostles. The 
consideration of these stories we shall defer to Book II. It 
would, however, be quite equally rash and uncritical to apply 
the s} T mbolical interpretation indiscriminately to all the Gos- 
pel accounts of demoniacal possession and its cure. There 
is certainly some historical foundation for them. We have no 
sufficient reason and therefore no right entirely to reject them. 
If Jesus really did restore some of these sufferers to them- 
selves, to their friends, and to social life, we can readily un- 
derstand how misconceptions, exaggerations, and unconscious 
inventions would gather round the fact, and crowd our Gos- 
pels with accounts of miraculous healings. Again, such events 
would be quite enough to account for the general attention al- 
most immediately fixed on Jesus, and for the great excitement 
produced by his appearance. Though he never adopted any 
peculiarity in his outer mode of life, as John did, yet these 
cures, effected as they were without any of the superstitious 
posturing of the professional exorcists, would be euough to 

E.g. Mark ix. 17, 18 (Matthew xvii. 15; Luke ix. 39). 



JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK. 135 

spread his fame far and wide. Finally, such healings are not 
inexplicable, still less impossible. Nervous affections are still 
amenable, in many cases, to control by moral power, by the as- 
cendancy of any one respected by the patient for instance, or 
any thing that rouses his own dormant energy of self-control. 
How much more must this have been the case when the dis- 
ease was regarded as the effect of " possession," and certain 
men were firmly believed to have secret means of cure, or to be 
specially favored by God with power of casting out the devil ! 
We must remember that these beliefs were shared by the suffer- 
ers themselves, and would act as a strong ally to that sense of 
moral power and " authority'' " which the commanding presence 
of Jesus inspired. We can well believe that though Jesus used 
no magic form of words, the fame that he had acquired, the 
glance of his e}'e, and his commanding "come forth," were 
often successful in producing the desired result. 

It is much more doubtful whether Jesus ever cured a fever, 
as he is said to have done in this story'. But even this we 
cannot pronounce impossible. There are many instances on 
record of fevers having been cured, even in modern times, by 
the bare word of one who had perfect reliance on himself, and 
in whose power the patient thoroughly believed. How much 
more likely 1 - would it be in ancient times for such a result to 
follow the word of a prophet, who was supposed to stand in 
some special relation to God ! But there is nothing to con- 
firm this special cure of Simon's mother-in-law. 

W r e cannot tell whether Jesus ever failed in his attempts, 
which were probably far from frequent, to cure demoniacs, 1 
nor whether any of those whom he had restored afterwards 
relapsed. 2 There is nothing intrinsically improbable in either 
supposition. Again, it has often been asked what the opinion 
of Jesus himself concerning the sufferers really was. Was 
he so far a child of the times as to attribute their sufferings 
to evil spirits dwelling in them? Or did he address the sup- 
posed demons in accordance with the needs of the patients, 
since that was the only means by which he could help them? 
The former supposition is by far the more probable in itself. 
Indeed, in the other case, there would have been a want of 
reality in his position which would have gone far to rob him 
of the confidence so essential to success. 

It mus* not be forgotten that we have only defended the 

1 Compare Matthew xvii. 16, 19 (Mark ix. 18, 28; Luke ix 40); Acts xix, 
13-16 : and Mark vi ? 

2 Compare Matthew xii. 43-45 (Luke xi. 24-26). 



136 JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK. 

healing of demoniacs in general as worthy of belief, and have 
by no means affirmed that the special cure said to have been 
effected on that particular Sabbath at Capernaum is certainty 
historical. We can only say that it is not incredible in itself; 
for, after all, it is quite possible that the story was originally 
attached to the account of this first preaching as a simple 
type of the moral power exercised by Jesus on the minds of 
men. When he spoke as one "having authority," the con- 
sciences of his hearers were aroused, and all impurity of heart 
and disposition — every evil spirit — must give way. There 
is all the more reason to question the historical accurac}' of 
the stoiy, because it contains, or is immediately followed b} T , 
certain unhistorical touches to which we have already called 
attention. In the first place, there is the monstrous exaggera- 
tion of the statement that the people brought all who were 
sick of an} T disease to Jesns, and that lie healed them. These 
short and comprehensive general assertions constantly recur, 1 
and are never to be trusted. If all these statements were 
literally true, there would soon have been no sick people left 
in Galilee or in Jerusalem ; but the Gospels always bring 
them upon the scene again, and so contradict themselves. 
Then again, the recognition of Jesus as the Messiah b} T the 
demoniac in the temple is a fiction which sprang from the 
belief that Jesus had come forward as the Messiah from the 
first, and that the demons dwelling in the sufferers had more 
than human knowledge. On the same supposition the Jews 
ascribed to these spirits their own belief that, when the Mes- 
sianic kingdom was established, Satan and all his subordinates 
would be hurled into the fire of Gehenna, to be punished ever- 
lastingly. Thus when the demons see Jesus they cry out, 
u Are you going to torture us now, before the time, before the 
the last day?" 2 

The account of the commencement of the ministry of Jesus 
at Capernaum ends with his sudden departure from the place. 
When the evening closed, the multitudes went home to rest ; 
and earty in the morning, when all around him slept, Jesus 
rose from his bed, left the house without rousing smy of its 
inmates, and went out of the city to a solitaiT spot — a desert 
place as the Evangelists express it — to pra} r . As soon as it 

i Matthew iv. 23, 24, viii, 16, ix. 35, xii. 15, xiv. 14, 36, xv. 30, xix. 2, xxi. 
14; Mark i. 32-34, 39, iii. 10, 11, vi. 55, 56 ; Luke iv. 40, 11. v. 15, 17, vi. 17-19. 
vii. 21, ix. 11. 

2 Matthew viii. 29. 



JESUS BEGINS HIS WORK. 137 

was day, Simon and his other friends of course perceived that 
he was gone. They went in search of him, and when they 
found him urged him to return. " Every one is asking for 
you," they eagerly exclaimed. But Jesus refused to go back. 
He had left the city so early because he had determined to go 
and preach in other places in the neighborhood ; and he now 
began to carry out his resolution. 

Such is the account in Mark. Now, according to this 
Gospel, Jesus only came to Capernaum the day before, and 
had therefore only spent that single Sabbath day in the city. 
That would be the reason why he did not get a house of his 
own, but spent the night in Simon's. This brings us to 
observe the extraordinary rapidity of motion which character- 
izes the narrative of the second Evangelist. His representa- 
tions are generally hurried, and in the first chapter alone the 
word ' ' immediately " occurs eleven or twelve times. Luke also 
mentions the departure of Jesus in the early morning, and 
Matthew tells us that after healing Simon's mother-in-law 
and other people he left Capernaum. 1 But Matthew clearly 
and expressly states, and Luke certainly implies, that Jesus 
had already definitely settled at the place, so that he must 
have made a longer stay than Mark allows. Such a suppo- 
sition is certainly nearer the truth than the inexplicable haste 
which Mark implies. Since Luke has told us nothing of the 
calling of the four disciples, he makes the multitudes them- 
selves seek out Jesus and endeavor to bring him back. This 
is highly improbable. He also makes Jesus answer, kt I must 
bear the glad tidings of the approach of the Messianic age to 
other cities also. This is my mission." 

Jesus, accordingly, now began his journey through Galilee. 
He entered the synagogues of the various places, and took 
every opportunity of proclaiming the kingdom of God. Mag- 
dala, Chorazin, and Bethsaida are especially mentioned among 
the places he visited, but we never find any allusion to his 
having been at the capital, Tiberias. He did not confine his 
visits to the cities on the shore of the "lake, but travelled in- 
land, came to Nazareth, and raised the voice of his preaching 
everywhere. 2 His field of labor was wide, brought him into 
contact with all kinds of people, and was all the more ex- 
hausting because he could not as yet share it with airy fellow- 
workers. In this way we shall see him toiling on till he leaves 
Galilee on that journey to Jerusalem which was to cost his 
life. He always returned from these excursions to Caper- 

1 Matthew viii. 18. 2 Matthew iv. 23 (Mark i. 39; Luke iv. 44). 



l.°>8 JESITS BEGINS HIS WORK. 

naum, perhaps in search of that rest which was not to be 
found, however, even here ; perhaps simply because he had 
chosen this place as his abode, as the headquarters of his 
work, and his point of departure on each fresh journe} T . 1 
Accordingly we shall often find him here again. 

What gave him strength to bear the perpetual strain he 
found himself compelled to undergo? We shall deal ex- 
pressly with this question further on, but cannot refrain from 
observing here how beautifully and fittingly the second Gos- 
pel closes the account of his first public appearance, when it 
sa} T s that the next morning at the dawn of da} r Jesus went 
alone to pray. We cannot tell whence the writer derived this 
detail. He may have supplied it from his own imagination ; 
but, if so, we are willing to believe that his conjecture was a 
true one. We ma}- well suppose that Jesus could not sleep 
that night. The day that had just closed was of such deep 
import for the cause to which he had consecrated his life ! 
His first public utterances had been crowned with so rich a 
promise of good results, and his success, for the time at least, 
was now made sure ! The strain upon his powers had been 
so great that both head and heart were too full for rest, and 
thoughts innumerable rushed in upon him in the stillness of 
the night. He must rise and go out into the open scenes of 
Nature. Then he bowed down his head and raised his heart 
to God with the prayer that this first success might be 
crowned by His richest blessing ; that he himself might not 
be too much elated hy the enthusiasm he had inspired ; that 
the power to work unceasingly might never fail or leave him. 

Such prayers as his are never left unanswered. 

l Matthew ix. 1, xiii. 1, 36 ; Mark ii. 1, iii. 19, vii. 17. 



JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HIS PEOPLE. 139 



Chapter X. 

JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HIS PEOPLE. 

Matthew VII. 24-27, XIII. 1-23. 31-35, 44-48, 51, 52, XIV. 13-21 ; 
Mark IV. 26-29. 1 

What is the sacred place where thou dost teach V 
The grassy slope, the cornland vale, or beach, 
The fisher's boat rocked on the heaving lake V 
The lowliest threshold and the busiest street 
Are holy ground when trodden by thy feet, 
For thou canst everywhere a temple make ! 

BY these words the poet means that Jesus neither required 
nor even asked for any specially holy place, an}' conse- 
crated pulpit, but accepted eveiy occasion offered him by daily 
life and eveiy place in any degree suited to his purpose, and 
made it a holy temple by his presence and his words. Cer 
tainly this new teacher, who had first appeared at Capernaum, 
and was now journeying through the cities of Galilee, had not 
a touch of that consequential and pompous solemnity of man- 
ner upon which some orators rely for half their power. He 
took the fullest advantage of the ease and freedom rendered 
possible by the climate and the social institutions of the East ; 
and we find him sometimes addressing a little knot of hearers, 
sometimes preaching to a more or less numerous assembly, — 
at one time speaking in his own house, 2 at another in a neigh- 
bor's, 3 perhaps at the friendly meal to which he has come as a 
guest ; 4 and yet again in the highways, 5 or in the ample mar- 
ket-place, at the gate of a city, or on a quiet walk through 
the open countiy, 7 on the picturesque shores of the lake, or in 
a boat that rides at anchor. 8 He even seems to prefer some 
place at a distance from the tumult of the cities, such as a 
grassy plain 9 or the slope of a mountain, 10 where he can address 
a tolerably numerous audience. 11 

1 Matthew xv. 32-38 ; Mark iv. 1-20, 30-34, vi. 30-44, viii. 1-9 ; Luke vi. 
47-49, viii. 4-15, ix. 10-17, xiii. 18-21. 

2 Mark ii. 1, iii. 19, &c. 3 Matthew viii. 14; Luke x. 38, &c. 
4 Luke vii. 36, xiv. 1, &c. 5 Luke xiii. 26; compare x. L0. 

6 Mark vi. 56. ? Matthew xvi. 13; Luke xi. 1, &c. 

8 Matthew xiii. 1.2; Mark ii. 13; Luke v. 1. See, also, p. 128. 

9 Matthew xiv. 15, 1!) ; compare vi. 30; Mark vi. 39. 

1° Matthew v. 1, xv. 29. u Matthew xiv. 21, xv. 38. 



140 JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HIS PEOPLE. 

All this, however, does not alter the fact that the syna- 
gogues — those academies of Israel, those centres of the peo- 
ple's religions life — must have presented themselves to Jesus 
as the usual and the most appropriate places in which to speak 
of religious subjects, 1 especially as hardly a hamlet was with- 
out one, while each of the larger towns had several. It was 
in the synagogue that he uttered that discourse to which he 
owed his first success at Capernaum. The structure of these 
synagogues varied considerably, and some of them were splen- 
didly adorned. Those of the little cities of Galilee, to which 
the visits of Jesus were almost entirely confined, were proba- 
bly oblong buildings, varying in size, and generally provided 
with a colonnade. B} T far the greater part of the interior was 
occupied by the seats for the men and women, carefully sepa- 
rated from each other ; then, further on, came the pulpit, and 
probably seats for the ruler of the sjiiagogue and the elders ; 
lastly, sunk into the wall that looked towards Jerusalem, or 
fixed upon it, was the chest which contained the sacred rolls. 
To these synagogues an}' one might come at the appointed 
hours (nine, twelve, and three o'clock) to offer his daily 
prayers. 2 Here the Law was read aloud, not only on the 
Sabbath, but on Mondays and Thursdays, when the markets 
were held, the courts of justice sat, the country people came 
into the cities, and the Pharisees kept fast. 3 But the service 
of Saturday was, out of all comparison, the most important. 
First of all the pra} r ers were uttered, in a standing posture, 
and in the language of the people ; then a passage was read 
out of one of the five rolls of the Law, followed by a section 
from one of the eight prophetic rolls (Joshua, Judges, Sam- 
uel, Kings, 4 Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the minor proph- 
ets from Hosea to Malachi). These passages of Scripture 
were expounded and applied, as well as read, and it was 
usual for one to read and another to interpret. In the after- 
noon the worshippers assembled again to read a shorter pas- 
sage of Scripture, and often sta} T ed on into the evening with 
lighted lamps. The congregation said amen to the pra} T ers ; 5 
and, though it was forbidden to interrupt the speaker, we may 
be sure that Oriental vivacity found some means of expressing 
occasional approval or dissent clearly enough. Of course the 
Scribes, who had studied at the University of Jerusalem, who 
had sat at the feet of celebrated teachers, and who still de- 

i See pp. 130, 131, 137. 2 Matthew vi. 5. 

8 Luke xviii. 12. 4 See vol. i. p. 350. 

6 Compare 1 Corinthians xiv. 16. 



JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HIS PEOPLE. 141 

voted their time and strength to the constant study of the 
Scripture, or perhaps of the Law alone, were most frequently 
requested to address the people after the reading of Scripture ; 
but every Israelite who had reached manhood, and was in full 
enjoyment of his ecclesiastical and civil rights, was qualified 
to speak in the synagogue. In the time of Jesus there was 
no trace as yet of any academical title or diploma which the 
leader of public worship must hold. Airy one who frequently 
spoke in the synagogue, 1 especially if he gained some celebrity 
as a teacher, was saluted by the title of honor, — " Rabbi," or 
" Master," whether he had had a learned education or not. 2 

Jesus, then, took every occasion that came in his way, and 
especially availed himself of the admirable opportunities af- 
forded b} T the synagogue, to preach what he had at heart to 
the people. With this general statement we must rest con- 
tent, for his discourses and detached sayings have been pre- 
served, collected, and handed down to us without any strict 
observance of time and place in their arrangement. This is 
only what we might fairly have expected. The oral tradition 
preceded the written ; and what could be more natural than 
to collect the similar discourses without reference to the inter- 
vals of time or space which separated them? Indeed, our 
Evangelists themselves make very free with the time and place 
of the discourses in fitting them into their own framework. 
We will take a remarkable example. In the fifth, sixth, and 
seventh chapters of Matthew we possess an inestimable col- 
lection of short sayings and more extended discourses which 
the first Evangelist, or perhaps to a great extent the Apostle 
from whom his Gospel takes its name, 3 had woven together ; 
but the}' were realty uttered at various times and under vari 
ous circumstances, and have no connection with each other. 
Matthew, however, represents Jesus as having delivered the 
whole collection at once on a mountain. Hence the name of 
" Sermon on the Mount " is given to this precious monument 
of the teaching of Jesus, and the legend has fixed upon "the 
horns of Chattin " 4 as the place from which the sermon was 
delivered. Now the Evangelist had a special motive for fix- 
ing upon a mountain for this purpose. He intended to repre- 
sent Jesus laying down the fundamental laws of the kingdom 
of heaven as the counterpart of Moses, who promulgated the 
constitution of the Old Covenant from Mount Sinai. 5 Luke, 

1 Matthew xxiii. 7. 2 Matthew viii. 19, ix. 11, xvii. 24, xxii. 16. 

8 See p. -30. 4 See the plan of Gennesareth in Map V. 

6 See vol. i. pp. 296, 299. 



142 JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HIS PEOPLE. 

on the other hand, not wishing Jesus to be regarded as a sec- 
ond Moses, or another lawgiver, just as deliberately makes 
the Master deliver this discourse on a plain. 1 

In reproducing the teaching of Jesus, then, we must be on 
our guard. As a rule we need not pa} r much attention to the 
order of sequence observed in the Gospels. There are some 
few points as to which we ma} T feel reasonably certain ; for 
example, that many sayings which belong to the closing 
rather than the opening period of the ministiy of Jesus have 
been put too early by the Evangelists, and that his more 
gloomy utterances fit best into the later part of his career. 2 
Such points as these we shall try to keep in view, but for the 
rest shall generally take up the sayings of Jesus as opportu- 
nity occurs, without la} T ing much stress on the order in which 
he uttered them. But first we must say a few words as to the 
general form and subject-matter, the spirit and contents of 
his teaching. We shall attempt to do so, adding illustrative 
examples, in this and the next three chapters. 

Most of the specimens of the teaching of Jesus that we still 
possess are in the form of parables ; that is to sa} T , fictitious 
but not impossible stories or images, generally suggested b} T 
the incidents and usages of daily life, and destined to illustrate 
some special truth. To understand them fully we must first 
of all get a clear conception of the image, or the supposed 
event itself: the study of antiquities is an invaluable aid 
to us here. Then we must lay all the stress on the points of 
comparison, in which the lesson is contained, without attend- 
ing too much to what is merely incidental to the form of the 
parable. The moral stories or sketches of character, as the} r 
ma}- be called, which are only found in Luke, form a separate 
class of themselves. 

Now the question is, how it comes to pass that we have so 
man} T more specimens of this kind of preaching than of any 
other ? Did Jesus usually teach in parables ; 3 or is it simply 
that they were easier to remember and repeat than other forms 
of discourse ? It may be urged that we have several speci- 
mens of the proverbial or epigrammatic style of teaching from 
his lips ; that he showed a great love of throwing his sayings 
into the form of paradoxes ; and that he must, from the nature 
of the case, have occasionally delivered long discourses or 
addresses, — but that all these forms of utterance were harder 
to remember than the parables, and have therefore oftener 

i Luke vi. 17 "- See p. 13. 3 Mark iv. 33, 34 (Matthew xiii. 34, 35). 



JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HIS PEOPLE. 143 

been lost. All this maj' be perfectly true, but still Jesus does 
seem to have chosen the parable as his most frequent mode 
of teaching. The reason is simple and obvious. He had a 
special talent for making parables. Not that he took a pride 
in it. Such small-minded vanity was utterly foreign to him. 
But the images presented themselves so naturally that he was 
never at a loss for them. And, besides, this mode of teach- 
ing had several special advantages in itself. It excited and 
retained the attention of the hearers, and was always listened 
to with fresh delight. The images thus imprinted on the im- 
agination, together with the lessons they taught, fixed them- 
selves without effort on the memoiy, and were passed from 
mouth to mouth. Last, not least, the} r stimulated independent 
thought. A parable like a riddle excites curiosity and chal- 
lenges the exercise of ingenuity. The speaker's meaning might 
be sometimes more and sometimes less obvious, but it always 
had to be looked for, and so required some effort on the hear- 
er's part. 

The Gospels themselves give another reason. 1 The disci 
pies ask Jesus privately what was the meaning of one of his 
parables, and also why he adopts this indirect method of teach- 
ing. He answers, " It is granted to } T ou to understand these 
new truths of the kingdom of God ; but to the multitude I 
speak in parables that they may see and 3'et be blind, and 
ma}' hear yet not understand." Then he strongly emphasizes 
these last words by a quotation from Isaiah, in which the 
prophet represents the fruitlessness of his preaching as de- 
signed b} T Yak well himself.' 2 Now such a reason as this, 
taken literally, is essentially absurd. No man in his senses 
would undertake to teach the people with the express purpose 
of not being understood ; and to say that Jesus used figura- 
tive language for fear people might understand him and then 
repent and be forgiven 3 would be a senseless slander. Nor 
is this what the Evangelists meant ; but when the} T contem- 
plated Israel's obstinate want of faith, the}- supposed that God 
must have foreordained the sad result, or else the words of 
Jesus would have met with more acceptance. There is, how- 
ever a germ, of truth in this view of the purpose of Jesus. 
He cannot have intended to be fully understood at once by 
every one. He must have known that some of the thoughts 
he uttered were so new, and in such direct conflict with the 

1 Matthew xiii. 10-17 (Mark iv. 10-12; Luke viii. 9, 10). 

2 Matthew xiii. 14, 15; compare Isaiah vi. 9, 10. See vol. ii. chap, xxiii. p 248. 
« Mark iv. 12. 



144 JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HIS PEOPLE. 

traditions and prejudices of his people, that they could not 
possibly accept them all at once. Had he spoken without 
metaphor he would have shocked his hearers too deeply to 
convince them. He was therefore obliged to be content for 
the present with shaking their fixed ideas and setting them to 
think. Na^y, the only possible way of removing their religious 
prejudices was to enable them gradually to reach the meaning 
of his words, and so to understand the secrets of the kingdom 
of God b}* the exercise of their own powers ; for when a par- 
able had thoroughly enlisted their sj'mpathies in some simple 
case in which their prejudices were not at work, they gradually 
perceived that the} T had been induced to accept some great 
principle which was at variance with many of the convictions 
the}' had hitherto cherished. And yet they always felt its truth 
as far as they understood it, and were too deeply committed 
in their sympathies to be able to draw back, as its full mean- 
ing slowly opened out before them ; and when once a man has 
discovered the truth himself, that truth which no one else can 
make him see, he will readily relinquish all his cherished pre- 
judices as misleading ; nay, he will do more ! But let Jesus 
himself tell us what : — 

Once on a time a laborer was digging up his master's land 
when he happened to drive his spade or mattock a little deeper 
than usual, and struck upon something hard, that glittered as 
he drew up the spade. Then he dug down with a will, and 
threw the earth aside till his eyes were riveted by a great 
treasure of gold and silver and precious things ! It must 
have been buried there years, perhaps centuries ago, in time 
of war, and its owner had sunk into the grave without impart- 
ing his secret to any one. The fortunate discoverer was be- 
side himself with delight. He covered up his treasure again 
so that no one would suspect that any thing was there, hast- 
ened to the owner of the field, and asked him what he would 
sell it for. As soon as he knew the sum required, he went 
and sold every thing he had ; sold the house and little plot of 
land on which perhaps his grandfather and great-grandfather 
had lived ; sold the furniture and the very tools he had learned 
to love as though they were living things ; had but one thought, 
one purpose, to scrape together the required sum ! At last 
he had it. He went to the farmer and bought the land. "What 
were the sacrifices he had made to the treasure he had se- 
cured? 1 "But the man was shamefully dishonest," you will 
say. Perhaps so. Indeed, there is no doubt about it. But 

1 Matthew xiii. 4-i 



JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HIS PEOPLE. 145 

that is not the point of comparison. The story is only meant 
to bring out the man's eagerness to sacrifice every thing, with- 
out reserve and without hesitation, for the treasure he had 
found. 

Here is another form of the same : — 

There was once a merchant who dealt in costly pearls (a 
travelling jeweller as we should express it) who longed to be- 
come, famous in his trade. So he visited the pearl fisheries 
of the Persian Gulf and the Indian coasts in spring. Once 
on a time he entered a certain hut, and the fisherman to 
whom it belonged showed him a pearl so large, so clear, so 
perfectly rounded, that he had never seen its fellow. His 
eyes gleamed at the sight. What must he give for it? The 
fisher named his price. It ma}* have been enormousl}* high, 
but it was not dear. " Good ! Keep it for me, and let no 
one else have it." The jeweller went out and hastened to 
dispose of all he had ; pearls, precious stones, every thing ! 
Did he not grieve over his loss? Nay, he never gave a 
thought to it. At last he had collected the required sum. 
He hastened to the fisher ; he paid the money with a beat- 
ing heart, and the splendid pearl was his own. 1 

You see the meaning of these parables? One man, like 
the laborer, learns what the kingdom of heaven is without 
having ever thought of it or looked for it ; while another, 
like the merchant, has been searching for truth and goodness 
for whole }~ears, perhaps a lifetime, not knowing what a glo- 
rious discovery awaits him. But when once a man, by what- 
soever means, has seen the surpassing glory of that kingdom, 
he is read}* to sacrifice every thing without another thought, 
if he may but enter in. He will not only sacrifice his gold or 
his possessions, all earthly love or the esteem of men, if they 
draw his heart awa}' from that kingdom, but he will in every 
case sacrifice himself and his religious prejudices, every thing 
he has loved hitherto, but now finds to be neither good nor 
true. But, remember, he must find the treasure or the pearl 
himself. No one can find it for him. 

We have spoken of the stjde of teaching adopted by Jesus 
and the reasons which influenced him in choosing it, and we 
may naturally go on to ask whether he can fairly be called a 
popular teacher. If we mean by a popular teacher one who 
enables his hearers to follow him without effort, and to com- 
prehend him easily and perfectly at once, then we must 
1 Matthew xiii. 45, 46. 

VOL. III. 7 



146 JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HIS PEOPLE. 

answer that Jesus was very far indeed from being one. What 
he had to say was drawn from the sacred depths of his own 
spiritual life, and the general mass of his hearers were utterly 
incapable of sounding the profundity and fully comprehend- 
ing the scope of his words. Even his disciples and friends 
were generally unable to grasp his true meaning ; and there 
can have been but few whose 3-earning for salvation and 
longing for the truth enabled them to understand the Master. 
The superficiality that springs from prejudice and self-conceit 
was, and still is, an insuperable and, alas ! too common 
obstacle ; and it is not given to man}', even now, to see into 
the soul of Jesus. But the privilege of being understood by 
every one is confined by its very nature to those who stand 
upon something like the same level as their hearers. True 
popularity is something veiy different from superficiality, and 
in this other and higher sense it ma}' be said that few teach- 
ers have ever been so popular as Jesus. In the first place 
he was perfectly simple. His language is never florid. It 
bears no trace of the usual Oriental inflation, or the elaborate 
trivialities of the rabbis ; nor does he buiy his teaching under 
a heap of traditional authorities, cited with a great display 
of learning. His calmness, his natural simplicity, his straight- 
forward neglect of artificial adornments, and his transparent 
clearness command our admiration. Even when he threw 
his thoughts into the form of paradoxes, which he sometimes 
did involuntarily, but often on purpose, it was not because 
he wished to be enigmatical, but simply to assist the percep- 
tion of his hearers by bringing a powerful stimulus to bear 
upon their thoughts and feelings, and stamping his concep- 
tion upon their minds by the incisive form into which he 
threw it. We shall meet with many illustrations of this fact 
as we go on, and may now confine ourselves, b}' way of 
example, to the warning based upon experience against 
spiritual sloth aud degeneration : "To him that has shall be 
given, and he shall have abundance ; but from him that has 
not shall be taken away even that which he has." 1 

But to understand the secret of his popular power we 
must notice, above all, that his language moved exclusively 
in a sphere with which both he and his hearers were thor- 
oughly familiar, or at least might and ought to have been so. 
This is true of the form of his teaching to begin with. It is 
considered one of the great merits of Homer, the prince of 
poets, that he never used an image or a comparison that was 
1 Matthew xiii. 12 (Mark iv. 25; Luke viii. 18). 



JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF TITS PEOPLE. 147 

not drawn from objects which both he and his hearers had 
seen. If English poets followed this rule they would have to 
banish lions, tigers, avalanches, crevasses, and a great deal 
beside from their compositions. Now Jesus always kept 
within the limits of his own experience. His inexhaustible 
wealth of illustration never leads him outside the circle of his 
own daily life. Hence the unequalled vividness of all his 
sayings. And in a certain sense the matter of his teaching 
is as familiar as its form. He never used an argument or a 
proof which any of his hearers could not follow. Fully to 
appreciate his discourses and his parables needed no learning 
or special knowledge that is not in the reach of every clear 
head and pure heart. It needed only that knowledge of the 
world and life, that knowledge of human nature, that self- 
knowledge for which every true man strives. Indeed, even 
this was hardly necessary. The one fatal obstacle to com- 
prehending Jesus was a belief on the part of those that heard 
him that the}' knew every thing, and were all that they should 
be alreacby. The one thing needful was a conscience laid 
open to his influence b} T dissatisfaction with itself, and a 
burning desire to become purer and better, — a conscience 
eager to learn the truth instead of being fenced against it by 
its own prejudices. Jesus never forced a truth upon airy 
one by autliorit} T . Though he spoke with all the power of 
intense conviction, 3 T et he constantly appealed to his hearers 
themselves, to their sense of truth, to their affections, to theii 
conscience, and loved to convince them by a question or an 
appeal : " What think you ? " " What man is there among 
you, who ..." " Judge for yourselves ! " "Hearken and 
understand ! " 1 For he alwa} T s went on the belief that he 
had not to implant any new principle or pour an} T new affec- 
tions into human nature, but had simply to call from its 
depths what was sleeping there already and bring it into 
conscious life. It was in his own heart and life that he had 
found the truths he preached ; and if he could but free the 
inner lives of others from all that oppressed and entangled 
them ; if he could but bring their spiritual powers to full and 
true development, — the}' too would come to experience, to 
know, to feel, what he had known and felt himself. It may 
well be said of Jesus that he did not preach a new doctrine, 
but a new life. What he preached he had first lived and 
felt, and the natural consequence was that he found an ally 
in the conscience of every true-hearted man. If we bear all 
1 Matthew vii. 9, 1G, xv. 10, xxi. 28: Luke vii. 40, 42, x. 3G, et seq. 



148 JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HIS PEOPLE. 

this in mind, and remember his love of parables and the 
richness of metaphor and illustration which characterized 
his teaching, we shall not be at a loss to answer the question 
whether Jesus was a popular teacher. 

For the rest we can ascribe no dazzling gifts to him. He 
appears to have been entirely without those qualities which 
catch the e} T e and take the imagination by storm. On the 
whole, his appearance and his address seem to have been 
exceedingly simple. Externally, one would have said, he 
had little or nothing to help him. We still possess a stor} r 
in our Gospels which may be regarded as an emblematic 
description of the wa} r in which Jesus, as a popular teacher, 
satisfied the spiritual wants of countless hearers with but the 
slenderest possible means at his disposal. 1 

Once, when Jesus had gone in a boat to a solitary place, 
the multitude heard where he was and followed him by land. 
The physician of souls was too pitiful to withdraw from them, 
and he cured their sick. But when the evening fell, his disci- 
ples said to him : " There are no houses here, and it is late 
alread} r . Send them away to get food in the places round 
about!" But Jesus answered : "They need not go away. 
Give them something to eat." u But we have only five cakes 
of bread and two fishes to eat with them," they replied. 
" Bring them to me," said Jesus ; and commanding the peo- 
ple to sit down on the grass, he took the bread and fish and, 
after pronouncing the customary blessing over them, broke 
them up as usual and gave the pieces to his disciples. They 
gave them to the people, who ate or passed them on until they 
were all satisfied ; and when the}' collected the broken frag- 
ments still left by the outside rows they filled twelve baskets ! 
There were about five thousand present. 

Our Gospels still contain a few traces of the original mean- 
ing of the story, such as that " Jesus began to teach them 
man}' things," especially " concerning the kingdom of God ; " 
but the Evangelists evidently accepted it in its literal sense, 
and were perhaps influenced in their treatment of it by the 
stoiy of Elijah's miracle at Zarephath,' 2 and still more that of 
the manna sent to feed the Israelites in the wilderness under 
the great hero of the old dispensation. 3 In this literal sense, 
accordingly, they w T orked it out, by the addition of such details 
as that the people were told to sit down in groups or parties 

1 Matthew adv. 13-21 (Mark vi. 30-44; Luke ix. 10-17; and John vi. 1-14) 

2 1 Kings xvii. 8-16; compare 2 Kings iv. 42-44. 

8 Exodus xvi. ; Psalm lxxviii. 24: compare vol. i. pp. 289, 290. 



JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HIS PEOPLE. 149 

of a hundred and of fifty, and by the calculation that the bread 
required would have cost two hundred pence (about £6 or £7), 
and that there were five thousand men, " besides women and 
children," there. We need not stay to prove that this literal 
acceptation of the story lodges us in palpable absurdities, for 
every child knows that if we take away a part of any thing 
the remainder is less and not more than the whole was. Nor 
is it worth more than a passing mention that the first two Gos- 
pels repeat the story further on with slight modifications, 1 such 
as that the multitude numbered four thousand and remained 
three days with Jesus ; that the disciples had seven cakes, and 
that seven baskets of fragments were left. The essential 
features of the story remain the same. Some commentators 
have seen in these twelve baskets the spiritual sustenance of 
the twelve tribes, and have understood the story to mean that, 
when the whole heathen world had been fed by Jesus, there 
was still enough left for the Jews. Such a story lends itself, 
by its very nature, to all kinds of modifications and ingenious 
speculations that perhaps have nothing to do with its true 
meaning. The Evangelists give us the clew to the real signi- 
ficance of the stoiy when they bring the two "miracles of the 
loaves and fishes " (somewhat clumsily, it must be confessed) 
into connection with a warning uttered by Jesus against " the 
leaven " of the Pharisees ; 2 and again, when the}' report 
a sa} r ing in which Jesus promises that all " who hunger and 
thirst after righteousness shall be satisfied." 3 The mean- 
ing of the story seems to be that Jesus, with the slenderest 
means at his command, fed the souls of countless multitudes. 
Of this bread of the spirit it is literally true that it increases 
when it is consumed, and increases still more when imparted 
to others. 

Here, then, we have a strikingly true and accurate picture 
of Jesus as the feeder of the great multitude, as the teacher 
of the people. We see him journeying through Galilee, and 
ask what means he had at his disposal for the accomplishment 
of his great purposes. He had no honored name or sounding- 
title ; no great patron to support him ; no learning to com- 
mand the respect, or traditional authority to enforce the as- 
sent, of his hearers ; no brilliant powers or dazzling personal 
gifts, — and one would have said that he had nothing to recom- 
mend him above others, or to secure him any special influence. 
He was a man of the people, brought up as a workman, sim* 

i Matthew xv. 32-38 (Mark viii. 1-9). 

2 Matthew xvi. 5-12 (Mark viii. 13-21). 8 Matthew v. 6. 



150 JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HTS PEOPLE. 

pie in his language, and of ordinary dress and appearance. 
But see how the people press round him to catch every word he 
utters ! See how his simple language fascinates them ; how 
his familiar illustrations hold them by hundreds in strained 
attention ! And, when he ceases, mark the impression he has 
made, — the universal wonder, the exalted joy, the intense 
earnestness, the silent consolation, which have flowed from 
his preaching ! Surely this man of Nazareth, undistinguished 
as he seemed, was in the highest and fullest sense a teacher of 
the people. 

Jesus attracted and fascinated his hearers not only by his 
style of teaching, but also by the subject of which he spoke. 
A few special remarks on this point ma} 7 here be made. 

Jesus once compared himself, as a religious teacher or 
" Scribe who had learned from the kingdom of heaven," to a 
householder who kept all kinds of valuable things for which 
he had no immediate use in a storeroom. When he enter- 
tained his family and guests, friends and strangers, he brought 
out all manner of beautiful and useful things for them, some 
new and some old. It is a true description of the teaching 
of Jesus. The treasure-house of his spirit was inexhaustible. 
He knew the necessity of interweaving old expressions with 
which his hearers were familiar and new ones which would 
stimulate reflection, and so retaining their attention without 
wearying them. He regarded richness and diversity of form 
as essential to popular teaching. But this intermingling of 
" new" and " old " extended to the substance of his teaching 
also, and is illustrated by the preceding words: "Every 
Scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven." 
The " new" and the " old" alike referred to the kingdom of 
God ; and significantly enough the " new" is mentioned first, 
for not only did the Master's wonderful originality give fresh 
meaning to even the oldest form of words, but he himself was 
full}' aware that, though the religion he taught was almost as 
old as humanity itself, and the expectation of the kingdom of 
God as old as the spirit of prophecy, yet he was actually pro- 
claiming principles and truths that were altogether new to his 
age and his people. 

What these new truths and principles were we shall pres- 
ently inquire, but must content ourselves on this occasion by 
citing one characteristic instance. 

Jesus had taken up the task and the message of John, and 
had so far brought forth that which was old. But to him the 



JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HIS PEOPLE. 151 

kingdom of God meant something very different from what 
John had understood b}~ it, and in a certain sense his preach- 
ing of the kingdom was very new indeed. Now, since the 
parables, discourses, and sajings of Jesus deal almost exclu- 
sively with this kingdom, it is absolutely necessary for us to 
know what he meant b}' it. To say that the waking and 
sleeping hours of Jesus were filled by the ideal of the future, 
which had been the hope of Israel's men of God and the life- 
power of the nation for centuries, — to say that that ideal was 
the source of his zeal and the inspiration of his life is, after 
all, so entirely vague as to come to little or nothing ; for we 
know that there had never been a fixed body of doctrines or 
ideas concerning the Messianic age, and that there was none 
in the time of Jesus. Moreover, Jesus showed great inde- 
pendence of conception in this matter. Though his mind had 
been fed by the writings of the prophets, yet he passed over 
the political aspects of the Messianic hope in absolute silence, 
and fixed attention exclusively upon its spiritual side. All 
the religious hopes which had thrilled the hearts of the noblest 
of his countiy's children, — the expectation of a more perfect 
and wide-spread knowledge of God, of a pure moral life, of 
untroubled love and harmony among men, of rest to the soul 
and peace between God and man, — all these he combined, in 
their ripest perfection and under their fairest forms, into one 
glorious conception, looking for its fulfilment in the immediate 
future at the founding of the kingdom of heaven. Under this 
expression, then, he understood a condition of the highest 
spiritual weal. But this was not all. He was too good an 
Israelite, too practical a man, and had too firm a grasp of the 
actual conditions of life, not to feel that all the institutions of 
social life, and the external lot of man, must be made to cor- 
respond to this spiritual condition. To him the Messianic 
kingdom meant society glorified by pure religion and perfect 
morality, enjoying as a consequence untroubled bliss, and 
blessed by God in ample measure with all material good. 

John had laid almost exclusive stress upon the last judg- 
ment and the destruction of the godless, which were to precede 
the founding of the kingdom. His preaching, therefore, was 
the sound of an alarm and a cry to penitence. Jesus, during 
far the greater part of his ministry, threw this terrible judg- 
ment entirely into the background ; and even during the last 
few weeks of his life, when it assumes a prominent place in 
his preaching, still the announcement of the golden age is 
always prevailingly joyous and consoling on his lips, — a true 



152 JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HIS PEOPLE. 

gospel, or "glad tidings." In his teaching there is not a 
trace of any vengeful feeling towards the stranger, not a 
hint of the doom of destruction awaiting the heathen oppres- 
sors of his country ; and it is comparatively seldom that we 
meet with those anticipations of sudden and violent revolu- 
tions which John and his other contemporaries so constantly 
expressed. Jesus expected that the kingdom of God, in ac- 
cordance with its spiritual nature, would establish itself in 
secret, and would subdue and renovate all things before it dis- 
plaj^ed itself in its glory. He illustrated this secret influence 
and progress of the kingdom of God by an image taken from 
one of the occupations of daily life. When a woman is going 
to bake she takes three measures of flour and begins to knead ; 
but first she throws in a piece of leaven (equivalent to yeast) , 
and as she kneads the mass of dough the leaven is spread 
about and mixed up with it until every particle is leavened and 
ready to rise. Thus must the spiritual principle of the king- 
dom of God penetrate society. And however small and in- 
significant the beginnings of the great work of regeneration 
might appear, there was no need to despair ; for it would be 
with it as with a grain of mustard seed which a man takes and 
sows in the ground. It is the smallest of all garden seeds, 
but when it grows up it is the greatest of herbs ; nay, it 
becomes a tree under the branches of which the birds of 
heaven come for shelter. 1 

In such images as these Jesus expressed his faith in the 
power of good, in the influence of truth ; in a word, his faith 
in God. But we must not forget that he had great faith in 
human nature too. He compared his own work to that of a 
husbandman who sows his field with seed, and then does 
nothing more to it, and never sees the grains as they silently 
burst and sprout below the ground. But as he is going on 
his wa} 7 the seed shoots up, and grows he knows not how ; 
for the earth brings forth fruit of itself, first the blade, then 
the ear, then the full corn in the ear ; and then the reapers 
are sent in with their sickles, for the harvest time has come. 2 
So Jesus could afford to wait. He did not expect to see the 
fruits of his labor immediately. He was content for them to 
ripen gradually and slowly, and he never for a moment doubted 
the fruitfulness of the soil, never doubted the natural, inborn 
goodness of the human heart. 

Not that he allowed himself to be deceived b} T mere appear* 

1 Matthew xiii. 31-33 (Mark iv. 30-32; Luke xiii. 18-21). 

2 Mark iv. 26-29. 



JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HIS PEOPLE. 153 

ances ! Not that he believed, when hundreds of hearers were 
pressing round him, that they were all inspired by a true, a 
deep, a holy interest in the message he delivered, or that all 
would receive a lasting impression from it. His own words 
will teach us how far he was from any such delusion. 1 A 
husbandman went out to sow his field, and, as he flung the 
seed before him in a semicircle, some fell upon the pathway 
that ran across the land, and lying exposed upon its beaten 
surface, unbroken by the plough, was snapped up by a swarm 
of birds that alighted behind him. Other seed fell upon a 
place where a rock lay hidden just below the surface of the 
soil. Here the corn shot up luxuriantly, for there was no 
room for it to strike deep root, and all its strength went into 
the blade, and the warm rock fostered its growth from below as 
the sun did from above. But when the heat of summer came, 
the feeble ears were soon parched up. The}' could draw no 
moisture from the earth, and so the hot sun killed them. Yet 
other seed fell on a spot where brambles had been growing, 
and though the plough had cut them down their roots were 
still in the ground ; and when the seed began to grow the 
brambles came up also, and were too strong for the corn, and 
at last choked it. But some of the seed fell upon good ground 
and full ears sprang from it, and each grain brought forth 
fruit a hundred or sixty or thirty fold. 

Jesus himself laid special stress upon this parable, for he 
closed it with the solemn words : "He who has ears to hear, 
let him hear ! " Indeed, he is said to have explained it imme- 
diately afterwards at the request of his disciples. 2 It gives us 
a vivid picture of the difficulties against which the husband- 
man had to contend in Palestine ; but it is far more note- 
wort!^ as a testimoiry to the deep and varied knowledge of 
human nature possessed by Jesus. He divides his hearers 
into four classes. Some are simply incapable of understand- 
ing him, for they are without any sense for the higher truths 
of the spirit ; for them his teaching can do nothing, — it goes 
in at the one ear and out at the other. Then there are super- 
ficial hearers, who understand something of his teaching and 
are highly delighted with what they hear, but have no depth 
of nature ; as soon as the} r meet with opposition or persecu- 
tion their enthusiasm dies and they fall away. There are 
others who understand and feel the truth, but are weak of will ; 
they lack decision and perseverance, and so the cares and 

i Matthew xiii. 3-9 (Mark iv. 3-9 ; Luke viii. 5-8). 

2 Matthew xiii. 18-23 (Mark iv. 14-20; Luke viii. 11-15), 

7* 



154 JESUS AS THE TEACHER OF HIS PEOPLE. 

temptations of life prevent their putting what they have heard 
into practice and choke their good resolutions. Lastly, there 
are those who understand the word, in whose heart it finds an 
echo, who carry it out and put it into practice in a spirit of 
power, and bring forth fruits, — the one more and the other 
less, according to their moral and spiritual capacity, but all 
abundantly. 

So Jesus knew with whom he had to deal ; but he also knew 
that though the profound and the superficial nature, the earn- 
est and the careless, could not be separated now, they would 
not alwaj-s be left together. At present all must be received 
who came to listen to the preaching of the kingdom, but they 
would be sifted finally. " It is with the kingdom of God," 
he said, 1 " as with a net that is dragged through the water, 
and brings in all kinds of fish. When it is full, the fishermen 
draw it to shore, and sit down and pick out the good fish to 
collect in their baskets, but throw awa} T the worthless." 

With hallowed zeal he warned the multitudes not to be 
content with merely listening to what he said, but to do it. 
There were once two houses 2 built not far apart upon the 
bank of a stream that ran through a pleasant valley ; and one 
appeared to the eye to be just as firmly and strongly built as 
the other. But winter came, and the rain fell like a water- 
spout, and the swollen stream rose above its banks and rolled 
onwards, — a fierce mountain torrent breaking a way for its 
waters. The storm arose with terrific violence, and wind 
and wave clashed upon the two houses as though the ele- 
ments had joined their strength to hurl them to the ground. 
In the one house, when thus assailed b^y flood and storm, a 
single stone might be loosened here or there, but the whole 
stood firm, for its owner had built its foundations on a rock, 
and it could defy the fuiy of the storm. This builder is the 
type of the wise man who listens to the words of Jesus, and 
then does what he commands. But where is the other house? 
A might}' crash is heard for a moment above the howling of 
the wind and the rush of the maddened waters. This house 
could not defy their onslaught. Its walls tottered, its tim- 
bers cracked, it fell in with a crash, and the wild waters 
carried down the treasures of the house and rolled the very 
stones away ! For the owner had built upon the yellow sand 
of the desert, that in dry weather seems almost as hard and 
firm as the very rock itself ; but the waters of the stream had 
washed it loose, the foundations gave wa} T , and the house 

1 Matthew xiii. 47, 48. 2 Matthew vii. 24-27 (Luke vi. 47-49). 



THE BEATITUDES. 155 

fell in npoD the heads of those that dwelt in it. ."Such 
builders aie the foolish ones who listen to nry words, but do 
them not ! " 

Enough has now been said of the Master's mode of teach- 
ing. We shall not return expressly to the subject, but in the 
following chapters we shall meet with constant evidence of 
his keen observation that hardly any thing escaped, and his 
wonderfully happy power of producing the right illustration 
at the right moment. In a word, we shall see how Jesus 
makes the whole field of Nature and of man serve to bring the 
truth before the very e}~es of those whom he addresses. We 
ma} T conclude in the words of the same poet, whose lines we 
placed at the head of this chapter, and so pay our tribute of 
admiration and wonder to the teaching which Jesus gave his 
people : — 

To thee all Nature's oracles unfold 

The wondrous meaning deep concealed of old, 
Now by thy touch of sympathy laid bare ! 

To thee the richness "of their truth they yield, — 

Each sparrow and each lily of the held 
Preaching the gospel of a Father's care ! 

The shepherd seeking his lost lambs again, 

The housewife's bread, the gently-falling rain, 
The morning sun that climbs the heavenly height, 

The green grass, and the sports of careless youth, — 

All are but garments of the living truth 
That through them shines and tills our lives with light 



Chapter XI. 

THE BEATITUDES. 

Matthew V. 3-12.1 

" T3LESSED are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the king- 

J3 dom of heaven ! 

" Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be com- 
forted ! 

" Blessed are the meek, for the} T shall inherit the earth. 

" Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteous- 
ness, for the} T shall be filled. 

" Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercv 
i Luke vi. 20-26. 



156 THE BEATITUDES 

" Blessed are the pure in heart, for the}- shall see God. 

" Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the 
children of God. 

" Blessed are the}- which are persecuted for righteousness' 
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

u Blessed are you when men shall revile you and perse- 
cute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely 
[for my sake] . Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is 
your reward in heaven ; for so persecuted the}- the prophets 
which were before you." 

Such are the well-known Beatitudes which stand at thfc 
nead of the so-called Sermon on the Mount. 1 They contain 
the great central thoughts of Jesus' preaching, — his gospel 
in fact. Should airy one ask who Jesus was, and what were 
his purposes, we could give him no more concise and no 
fuller answer than these eight or nine short sentences. This 
was what Jesus had to offer, what he brought into the world, 
— not a new code with its penal enactments, not a new sys- 
tem of doctrine with its curse upon all who should dare to 
depart from it ; but a sure promise of deliverance from misery, 
of consolation under all suffering, and perfect satisfaction of 
all the wants of the soul. In these beatitudes he gives us 
his best thoughts, shows us the purpose of his life, and, as it 
were, lays bare his soul before us. It is with true spiritual 
insight that Matthew places them at the head of all the dis- 
courses, though they cannot really have come first in point 
of time. The concluding passage shows that in their present 
form, at any rate, they cannot date from the earl}- days of 
the Master's ministry ; for the direct form of address, " Bles- 
sed are ye," and the words that immediately follow the beati- 
tudes,' 2 clearly show that they were addressed to the friends 
of Jesus ; and in the earl}- days of his mission the}- cannot 
have been subject to the reproach, the calumny, and the per- 
secution which are here implied as their lot. As for the 
expression "for my sake," it is probably added to the real 
words of Jesus, both here and elsewhere, by the tradition. 
And yet it was well to put the beatitudes first, for they are the 
greeting which Jesus offers to the world ; they are the scheme 
of his life-work, the pure reflection of what was in his heart, 
the express image of his life and character. As the gentle 
sound of that reiterated "blessed" falls upon our ear, we 
feel in the first place that he who utters it himself rejoices 
in the blessings, or has them within his grasp ; and then that 
i See p. 141. 2 Matthew v. 13-16. See, also, pp. 163, 164. 



THE BEATITUDES. 157 

a conviction reigns in his heart, clear and strong, that he has 
power to pour them upon others too. Surely, if these few 
savings stood alone, they would be enough to assure to Jesus 
a place of honor among the benefactors of mankind. 

What a treasure of pure feeling, of hallowed sympathy, of 
true love for man, is contained in these few lines ! At the 
same time they breathe a kind of gentle humor that has gen- 
erally, escaped observation. "Blessed are they that have," 
say the proverbs of eveiy age ; "Better be envied than pit- 
ied ; " "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." Such 
expressions reflect unmistakably the ignoble, commonplace, 
so-called practical wisdom of the superficial multitudes of 
every time and place. In startling contrast to all this, Jesus 
puts forth his new and purely moral estimate : " Blessed are 
— the poor, the meek, the mourners ! " 

Perhaps the keenness of the paradox would come out still 
more clearly if we might accept as original the form of the 
sayings which Luke has preserved. In his Gospel we have 
only the first four beatitudes, and even these are given in a 
still shorter form ; but he balances them by four " Woes ! " 
which do not appear in Matthew at all. The whole passage 
runs as follows : ' ' Blessed are you poor, for jours is the 
kingdom of God. Blessed are you that hunger now, for you 
shall be filled. Blessed are 3-011 that weep now, for you shall 
laugh. Blessed are 3*011 when men shall hate you and when 
the}' shall cut 3*011 off from them, and revile 3*011 and cast out 
your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in 
that da3* and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in 
heaven ; for in like manner did their fathers unto the proph- 
ets. But woe unto 3*ou rich men, for 3 T our consolation is past 
and gone. Woe unto 3*011 that are satisfied, for you shall 
hunger. Woe unto 3*011 that laugh now, for 3*011 shall mourn 
and weep. Woe unto 3*011 when all men shall speak well of 
3*ou, for so did their fathers to the false prophets." But this 
is evidently a later form, and, as we have it, far from origi- 
nal. This is clearly shown by the reference to the Jewish 
ban, or " cutting off; " the expression " for the Son of Man's 
sake;" and, above all, the use of such a phrase as "their 
fathers," as though Jesus stood outside his people and re- 
nounced all connection with them. He could never really 
have used such an expression. 

But how can we explain the alterations which the beati- 
tudes have undergone in the third Gospel? The answer to 
this question deserves especial attention, for it directs us to a 



158 THE BEATITUDES. 

remarkable characteristic of the Gospel. One of the sources 1 
from which Luke drew his materials was a so-called Ebionite 
document. 2 Ebionites ("poor") was the name given to a 
party of Jewish-Christians, remarkable for their hatred of the 
rich and their exaltation of poverty. We shall meet with 
several traces in the third Gospel of the use of this Ebionite 
authority. Now there can be no doubt that the words and 
deeds of Jesus were often such as might fairly be urged in 
support of these Ebionite views. He had more sympathy 
with tae lot of the poor, and paid them more attention than 
others ; 3 and he saw rich men from time to time encumbered 
by their wealth and position when they might otherwise have 
joined him. 4 But for all that Jesus was not an Ebionite. 
There is a wide difference between longing to befriend the 
poor and systematically exalting povert} T , between uttering a 
solemn warning to the rich and cursing wealth. But as the 
sa3 T ings of Jesus were handed down by oral tradition in the 
Jewish-Christian circles referred to, their form was now and 
then involuntarily modified, and in the course of time they 
were committed to writing in this modified form ; and Luke, 
as alread}^ said, drew his four blessings and his four woes 
from some such Ebionite source, perhaps the Gospel of the 
Hebrews. 5 

All this may be quite true, however, and }-et the simpler 
forms of the first and fourth beatitudes, preserved by Luke, 
ma} T be the most authentic. In that case the additional words 
in Matthew — poor in spirit, hunger and thirst after righteousness 
— are put in b} T way of explanation. If this be so, the explana- 
tion they offer is certainly the true one ; for Jesus never meant 
to pronounce a blessing on the heads of all the poor in the 
ordinary sense, but onfy over those who felt their poverty, 
who were conscious of their deep need of help, and longed for 
spiritual wealth. Nor did he mean to say that literal hunger 
was a blessed state, but that all who were urged on by the 
unquenchable and irresistible longing for uncorrupted piety 
and goodness would be surely blessed. 

Let us look at the beatitudes once more. The first four 
are more or less distinguished from the rest b} T their reference 
to passive rather than active virtues, and the last two lines 
form the transition to what follows. Those who are marked 
by the graces and virtues spoken of are said to be blessed 
now in virtue of what will fall to their lot in the immediate 

i Luke i. 1-4. See p. 29. 2 See pp. 22, 57. 3 Compare Matthew xi. 5 
4 Compare Matthew xix. 23, 24. 6 See pp. 22, 116. 



THE BEATITUDES. 159 

future, — membership of the kingdom of God, divine conso- 
lation, boundless influence, and the satisfaction of the pas- 
sionate longing of their souls for moral perfection. But we 
are not to suppose that this future was to begin after their 
death, and these blessings of salvation to be bestowed on them 
in heaven. Heaven is not referred to here at all. The king- 
dom of God is upon earth and nowhere else ; and it is to the 
kingdom of God, to the perfect and blessed society of the 
future, that the promises refer. And so, in the last four 
beatitudes, the compassion which the merciful will in their 
turn receive refers to the grace of God, who will take pity on 
them when the Messianic kingdom is founded ; the privilege 
of seeing Him refers to the clear and personal knowledge of 
God which the pure in heart will have in that age. When 
those who imitate God, the great peacemaker, are called his 
sons or followers, 1 the title refers to their moral glory as 
members of the kingdom of heaven ; and membership of that 
kingdom will be the sure reward of those who are persecuted 
for the good cause. Meanwhile we must bear in mind that 
Jesus is not describing or referring to eight different types of 
character ; it is one t}^e worked out in eight different direc- 
tions ; it is the description of the followers of Jesus such as 
he would have them, such as he longed for them to be, 
though few of them actually united in themselves all these 
characteristics. 

Though the beatitudes make a single whole, the several 
virtues they enforce appear separately in the teaching of 
Jesus elsewhere. Thus he lays constant stress upon humil- 
ity, childlike simplicity and openness, and readiness to for- 
give ; and he is never weary of warning his hearers against 
pride, hard-heartedness, and avarice. He did not attach the 
smallest value to the piety that was made up of words : " Not 
everj x one who sa}~s [to me] Lord ! Lord ! shall enter into the 
kingdom of heaven, but they that do the will of m} T heavenly 
Father ; " 2 and he warned his hearers against the clanger of 
wilful moral blindness, darkening the soul's eye of reason and 
conscience. " The e}*e is the lamp of the bod}'. If your eye 
be healthy your whole body will be light ; but if your eye be 
diseased 3'our whole body will be darkened. Watch, then, 
lest the light that is in you be darkness." 3 Following out 
John's image, " Every tree that brings not forth good fruit is 

1 Matthew v. 45 ; Ephesians v. 1. 2 Matthew vii. 21 ; compare Luke vi 46, 
8 Matthew vi. 22, 23 (Luke xi. 34-36). 



160 THE BEATITUDES. 

cut down and cast into the fire," 1 he said : " We know a tree 
by its fruits. A sound tree cannot bear rotten fruit, nor a 
rotten tree sound fruit. Nor do we gather figs from thorn- 
trees, or grapes from bramble bushes. So, too, the good man 
brings from the good treasure of his heart the things that are 
good, and the bad man brings from the bad treasure of his 
heart the things that are bad ; for out of the fulness of his 
heart his mouth speaks." 2 So far was he from intending the 
beatitudes to excuse his followers from moral effort, that he 
cried to them with solemn emphasis, "Go in b} T the narrow 
gate ; for wide is the gate and broad is the wa}- that leads to 
destruction, and many are they that go in bj T it. But small 
is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and few 
there are that find it." 3 He knew what constant effort it 
required, what watchfulness, what self-denial to enter the 
kingdom of God. 

Let us now take some of the warnings that correspond to 
these exhortations and blessings. In contrast with the poor 
who hunger for the highest good stands the picture of the 
rich fool: "Beware of greed, for abundant possessions can- 
not make you sure of life ! 4 There was once a rich man, upon 
whose goodly lands such a heav}~ harvest stood that he was at 
a loss what to do with all his corn. So he suddenly resolved, 
' I will pull down nrv barns and build far greater ones instead. 
There I will lay up the produce and the goods of this and for- 
mer years, and then fling away all care and trouble and anx- 
iety and enj'03' my life at ease. I have abundant means for 
years to come, and I will make the most of them.' But God 
said unto him, v O fool ! this very night your life shall be re- 
quired of you, and where will all that you have gathered up 
be then ? ' So it is with those who heap up provisions for 
themselves, but are not rich in God." 5 

Jesus not only says that the gentle and pitiful are blessed, 
but warns us earnestly against setting ourselves on a lofty 
pedestal and passing sentence on our neighbor : "■ Judge not 
others lest you yourselves be judged ! For the sentence you 
pass shall be passed on you, and with the measure you use 
for others you yourselves shall be measured." 6 He laid all 
the more stress on this because those who set themselves up 



1 Matthew vii. 19; compare iii. 10 (Luke iii. 9). 

2 Luke vi. 43-45 ; compare Matthew vii. 16-20, xii. 33-35. 

3 Matthew vii. 13, 14; compare Luke xiii. 24. 

4 After an amended version. 5 Luke xii. 15-21. 
6 Matthew vii. 1, 2; compare Luke vi. 37, 38. 



THE BEATITUDES^ 161 

as the censors of their neighbor's little faults are often blind 
to their own much greater sins : " Can }'ou see the splinter in 
your brother's eye, when }*ou see not the beam that is in your 
own eye ? How can you say to your brother, ' Let me get 
that splinter out of your eye,' when behold ! there is a beam 
in your own eye ? O blind one ! remove the beam from your 
own e} T e, and then you will see clearly enough to lay hold of 
the splinter in j T our brother's eye, and draw it out." ' 

He constantly warns us to forgive those that have injured 
us, and to reconcile ourselves with those we have injured, as 
a duty we owe in consideration of what we hope to receive or 
have already received from God. u If you forgive men their 
trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you ; but 
if 3'ou forgive not others, neither will your Father forgive you 
your trespasses." 2 Once when Simon Peter asked him, " How 
many times must I forgive my brother when he wrongs me? 
Seven times?" (the rabbis thought three times enough) he 
answered, " I say not seven times, but seven and seventy." 3 
Then he added this parable : — 

" There was once a king who determined, after long delay, 
to reckon with his ministers and ascertain how much was due 
from each of them to the royal coffers. So all the high officers 
of state, the governors of the several districts, the contractors 
for the tolls and other branches of the revenue were sum- 
moned to the court. Among those who were loath to obey 
the summons was one of the most distinguished, the governor 
of the richest province. He had long neglected the duties of 
his post, and had wasted the money he ought to have paid 
over to his monarch in unexampled dissipation. So the sum 
had risen at last to almost four million pounds. But now the 
day of reckoning had come, and, since he could not pay, the 
prince in Oriental fashion ordered him and his wife and 
children to be sold as slaves, and all that he possessed to be 
put to sale, that as much of the debt as possible might be 
wiped out. The governor fell upon his face at the feet of the 
king in despair, and cried in supplication, ' Lord ! have pa- 
tience with me and I will pay it all ! ' It was a foolish prom- 
ise that he never could fulfil ; but what will not a man say in 
such dire necessary? His master saw his misery and had 

1 Matthew vii. 3-5 (Luke vi. 41, 42). 

2 Matthew vi. 14, 15 ; compare Mark xi. 25, 26. See also Matthew v. 
23-26. 

3 Matthew xviii. 21, 22, after an amended version ; compare Luke xvii. 3, 4 
See Genesis iv. 24, and vol. i. p. 54. 



162 THE BEATITUDES. 

compassion on him. With princely generosity he not only let 
him go, but even forgave him all the debt. Beside himself 
with the unspeakable joy of relief, the governor left the palace 
which he had entered in despair and terror. But who is that 
coming to meet him, or rather endeavoring in evident confu- 
sion to avoid him? It is one of his inferiors, who owes him 
a trifle of three or four pounds, and is not prepared to pay 
him at the moment. What could have been more natural 
than for the great man, in his thankful joy, to make the 
same day glad for his own humble debtor ? But no ! He 
rushed up to him, seized him by the throat, and cried, ' Pay 
what } t ou owe me ! ' The other fell upon his knees and be- 
sought his mercy. ' Have patience with me, and I will pay it 
all ! ' But the tyrant was not melted b}~ the thought that he 
himself had uttered these same words but now ; and in the 
mouth of his inferior they did not conve}^ a promise it was 
impossible to fulfil, as they had done in his. Was it vexa- 
tion at the danger he had just escaped, or was this cruelty a 
first step towards putting his affairs upon a sounder footing ? 
However this may be, he threw his debtor into prison till 
those few shillings should be paid ! But his conduct soon 
began to be talked about. The other great officers of state 
heard of it, and could not help reporting it indignantly to the 
king. The heartless conduct of the man to whom he had ex- 
tended such princely favor raised the monarch's utmost indig- 
nation, and he summoned the delinquent into his presence 
once again. ' Wretch ! ' he cried, ' I forgave } r ou that enor- 
mous debt, because you entreated me to defer exacting it, not 
daring even to ask that it should be forgiven ! And should 
not you have had pity on your debtor as I had pit}' on you ? 
Throw him into prison until he has satisfied my uttermost 
claims ! ' It was a hopeless sentence, for the debt could never 
be paid. 

"And so," said Jesus, "shall my heavenly Father do to 
you unless each one from his heart forgives his brother." 1 

Jesus took many opportunities of impressing upon his tear- 
ers that simplicity and humility were absolutely necessary for 
those who would enter the kingdom of God. When the dis- 
ciples were disputing which of them was to be the greatest, 
he rebuked them by saying, " Whosoever is least among you 
and humbles himself to be the servant of all, he is the great- 
est in the kingdom of heaven." 2 Another time he warned 

i Matthew xviii. 23-35. 

2 Matthew xviii. 4, xx. 26, 27 (Matk ix. 35, x. 43, 44). 



VOCATION OF THE CITIZENS OF GOD'S KINGDOM. 163 

them not to imitate the Scribes in their greediness for honor. 
" Never let 3'ourselves be called Rabbi or Master, for one is 
your leader and you are all brothers. He who is chief among 
you shall be your servant. He who exalts himself shall be 
humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted." 1 Or 
he took a child and placed it in the midst of them, and said, 
"I tell 3 T ou truly, unless you turn and become as children, 
s mple, natural, and receptive of all good influences, you shall 
by no means enter into the kingdom of heaven." 2 

Well might it be said of the contemporaries of Jesus, and 
of all for whom his Gospel has shone and shines, "Blessed 
are the e} r es which see the things you see ! For verily I say 
to 3'ou, that many prophets and righteous men have desired 
to see those things which } r ou see, and have not seen them ; 
and to hear those things which you hear, and have not heard 
them." 3 



Chapter XII. 

THE VOCATION OF THE CITIZENS OF GOD'S KINGDOM. 

Matthew V. 13-16, XXV. 14-46, VI. 19-21, 24-34. 

TO learn something more of the teaching of Jesus, let us 
turn to the Sermon on the Mount again, and take it up 
where we broke off just now. 

In the last beatitude Jesus had turned directly to his friends 
and followers to cheer and encourage them under the bitter 
opposition to which they would be exposed. This leads, by 
the most natural transition, to the description of their work 
and their place in societ} T which follows. " You are the salt 
of the earth." As salt is needed to give food a relish and to 
preserve it from corruption, so they were needed to give social 
life a flavor, and preserve it from moral ruin. Without them 
it was in danger of becoming hopelessly frivolous and insipid. 
''But if the salt loses its flavor," — as it might dc if long 
exposed to the sun or blasted by lightning, — ' ' nothing can 
restore its virtues to it. However precious it once was, it is 
now worthless, not fit even to be cast upon the dunghill ! It 
is thrown away and trodden under foot." And so if any one 

1 Matthew xxiii. 8-12. 2 Matthew xviii 2, 3. 

3 Matthew xiii. 16, 17 (Luke x, 23, 21). 



164 VOCATION OF THE CITIZENS OF GOD'S KINGDOM. 

should fall away from the good cause to which he had dedi- 
cated his life, what good could come of him for any thing? 1 
— " You are the light of the world." It is your task to teach 
the truth, to teach the way of life, to others, and it is a task 
you cannot lay down. " A city built upon a hill cannot be 
hidden. And no one who lights the lamp at eventime sets it 
on the ground and covers it with the corn measure ; but they 
put it on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in 
the house. So let } T our light shine before men that they may 
see 3 T our good works and glorify" — not you, but — " your 
Father who is in heaven." 2 To see the force of the last illus- 
tration, we must bear in mind that the arrangements of a Jew- 
ish house differed widely from those of our own. The measure 
was an indispensable article of daily use ; but moderately high 
tables such as ours were not used, and the lamp, which had 
no foot-piece and stood very low, had to be set on a tall can- 
dlestick or lampstand. It is curious to notice, in passing, 
that the first Gospel makes the lamp, which represents the 
friends of Jesus, shed its light over "those that are in the 
house ; " that is to say, the Jews ; whereas the Heathen- 
Christian Evangelist, 3 Luke, declares that "they who come 
in," that is, the Heathen, " shall see the light." 

These words are another and a very clear indication that 
the Sermon on the Mount transports us to a later period of 
the ministry of Jesus, — a period at which the profound sig- 
nificance that his character and person had acquired reflected 
high rank and conferred wide influence upon the simple fish- 
ermen and artisans who had attached themselves to him. 
But the higher they were placed, the heavier was their re- 
sponsibility ; and should they ever prove untrue to themselves 
and him, the deeper their fall ! 

Of course we must not limit this idea to the personal friends 
of Jesus, but must apply it to every Christian without excep- 
tion. All of us who take a serious view of life, whatever our 
position or our sphere of action may be, have some work for 
God to do in the world, and we must make it the object of 
our lives to do it. This thought was always present to the 
mind of Jesus, and experience taught him that "he who is 
faithful in that which is least is faithful also in that which is 
great ; and he who is unjust in that which is least is unjust 
also in that which is great." 4 He drew out this conception 

1 Matthew v. 13 (Mark ix. 50; Luke xiv. 34, 35). 

2 Matthew v. 14-16 ( Mark iy. 21). 3 Luke viii. 16, xi. 33. See p. 31. 
4 Luke xvi. 10. 



VOCATION OF THE CITIZENS OF GOD'S KINGDOM. 165 

of the task of life more especially in the parable of the tal- 
ents. 1 Before giving the stoiy we rna} r note that the word 
talent does not mean a special gift or capacity, but a certain 
sura of mone}' amounting to nearly four hundred pounds ; 
and also that in the East it was a much more difficult matter 
in olden times to invest a sum of money than it is now with 
us; "stocks," "exchanges," and so forth, were unknown. 
The parable runs as follows : — 

A rich man had to go abroad, and, since his absence would 
be a long one, he determined to arrange all his affairs, espe- 
cially the management of his mone}' matters, before he started. 
So he called his servants (we might sa^y his slaves, if the 
word were not closely associated in our minds with the un- 
happy condition of the negro slaves) , and, fully relying on 
their honest3 T , entrusted them with the care of his treasures. 
To one, for instance, he gave five talents to manage, to an- 
other two, to a third one, to each according to his ability ; 
and, having arranged all his affairs in like manner, set out at 
once on his journey. The servant in whose hands the largest 
sum of mone} T had been placed did all that in him hry to prove 
himself wortlry of his master's confidence. He bought and 
sold, invested in this and that, and was finally rewarded by 
seeing the five talents gradually increase to ten. The second 
servant also went to work with conscientious diligence, and 
had the same reward of doubling the sum entrusted to him 
while his master was awa}'. But the man who had received 
one talent did not care to exert himself. He only considered 
how he could keep the money safe ; and, since strong boxes 
were neither so common nor so secure in those da} T s as they 
are now, he dug a hole in the ground by night, in a place he 
could not fail to find again, and there he hid the bars of sil- 
ver. All he would have to do would be to come now and 
again and see whether the earth had been disturbed. At last, 
when years had come and gone, the master returned to his 
home. A great feast was prepared to welcome him, and 
meanwhile he called his servants together to hear what they 
had been doing with his money. The first came with his 
accounts and vouchers under his arm, and showed his master 
how he had doubled his five talents. The second brought a 
similar account, and each received the highest praise and ap- 
probation. "Well done! good and faithful servant. You 
have been faithful in a little, I will set you in command over 
much. And now come in and be my guest at the feast of my 

i Matthew xxv. 14-30. 



160 VOCATION OF THE CITIZENS OF GODS KINGDOM. 

rejoicing!" Then came the third, carrying the talent en- 
trusted to him in his hands. " Master," he said, covering 
his confusion by a show of assurance, and accusing his mas- 
ter byway of defending himself, "I know what an unjust 
and cruel man you are, making us toil and pant and then 
taking all the gain yourself ; so I dared not risk an} T thing, 
but kept the money safety. Here you have j^our own." 
"Wicked and slothful servant!" was the reply, ;t did you 
think I should be unreasonable in niy demands ? Then you 
might at least have lodged the mone} T with the changers that 
I might receive it back with interest. Take the talent from 
him," added he, turning to his attendants, "and give it to 
him that has the ten ; for whosoever has shall receive yet 
more, but from him who has not shall be taken awa} T even the 
little he has. And cast the worthless servant out into the 
darkness ; there let him wail and gnash his teeth, shut out 
from the joyous feast within." 

The meaning is not hard to see. The talents are the op- 
portunities that God gives us of working for his kingdom. 
One has more than another, for each one's sphere of work 
and influence differs in extent from that of others. But there 
is not one who can do no good, who can be of no use, who 
can make no one happ}- . Whoever loves God will make the 
most of his opportunities, will put them out to interest. Be 
his powers great or small he will do something with his life. 
It will not pass away without result, but will in some way 
glorify God and bless the world. But he who loves not God 
is slothful and unwilling, looks about for excuses and gets 
nothing done. The one is ever widening the scale of his 
usefulness ; the other gradually loses all his power of doing 
or of being any thing. 

This story is followed in the Gospel by a description that 
has no immediate connection with it of the last judgment, 
before the founding of the Messianic kingdom. In its pres- 
ent form it certainly is not due to Jesus, and cannot have 
arisen till the men of his generation had quite died out. We 
mention it here, however, partly because it very possibly 
sprang out of a figure of speech that Jesus actually used, but 
chiefly because its leading thought is certainty his, and places 
in the clearest light what he demands of all his followers and 
what he promises them. This leading thought is that the 
happiness of man hereafter depends solely and entirety upon 
whether he has given proof of love, — of simple, free, and 
generous love of man. Let us listen to it : — 



VOCATION OF THE CITIZENS OF GOD'S KINGDOM. 1G7 

The List day lias come. The Judge, surrounded by his 
angels, appears in all his glory, and the martyrs who have 
suffered for the kingdom of God, who have endured hunger 
and cold, persecution and misery, in preaching the Gospel, 
surround the throne, for the} T are subject to no judgment. 1 
All the nations are gathered there before the seat of judg- 
ment, and are waiting in awful suspense the sentence that 
will fix their weal or woe. The Judge parts them from one 
another as a shepherd parts the sheep from the goats, setting 
the one on his right and the other on his left hand. Then he 
turns to those on his right hand and says, " Come, ye blessed 
of God ! enter now upon the joy and glory prepared for 3*011 
from eternity. For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat ; 
I was thirst} T , and you gave me to drink ; I was a stranger, 
and 3 T ou took me in ; I was naked, and you clothed me ; I 
was sick, and you visited me ; I was in prison, and you 
came unto me." The virtuous when thus addressed are filled 
with amazement, for they know not w r hen they have had the 
opportunity of giving such support or showing such friend- 
ship to the glorious King. ' w Lord," the^y reply, " when did 
we ever see thee in such plight that our lowly aid could serve 
thee ? When have we ever done to thee as thou hast said ? " 
The King points to the niai^rs and confessors round him, 
and replies, "Verily I say to you, that inasmuch as you 
have done it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you 
have done it to me." 2 Then he turns to those on his left 
hand: " Depart from me, ye cursed, into the fiery lake pre- 
pared for the devil and those that serve him ! For I was 
hungry, and } t ou gave me no meat ; thirsty, and you gave me 
no drink ; a stranger, and 3*011 took me not in ; naked, and 
you clothed me not ; sick and in prison, and you visited me 
not." In terror and amazement at his words they begin to 
excuse themselves : u Lord ! when saw we thee in such plight 
that we might lend thee aid ? and when did we refuse it ? " 
The stern answer of the Judge confirms the sentence : " Ver- 
ily I say to you, inasmuch as you withheld it from one of the 
least of these, you withheld it from me." This it is that 
decides our blessedness or misery on the great day ! 3 

We shall have another opportunity of showing that this 
conception of a great judgment, held % the Christ in person, 
took a prominent place among the expectations of the apos- 
tolic age. Our immediate purpose was simply to show, in 

1 Compare Matthew v. 10-12. 2 Compare Mark ix. 41. 

8 Matthew xxv. 31-46. 



1G8 VOCATION OP THE CITIZENS OF GOD'S KINGDOM. 

connection with the lofty promises of the Sermon on the 
Mount, what was the task of life which Jesus set before his 
friends and all who should attach themselves to him. It was 
no confession of faith, but a life inspired by active love of 
God and man which he required from every one. 

In marking out the path his followers were to tread, Jesus 
could not be content with simply indicating their field of 
labor. He must, of course, speak of other things as well. 
For human life is many-sided. As corporeal beings we feel 
corporeal needs ; as members of society we have social cares, 
wants, and wishes. Jesus accordingly gave his disciples 
special exhortations on the attitude the} T were to take with 
respect to worldly goods. We still possess a short address 
from the earliest period of his ministiy on the question of 
what should be the greatest care of man. The near approach 
of the kingdom of God made it a matter of extreme impor- 
tance to throw light on the duty of its future citizens in this 
respect also. The words will be found in the Sermon on the 
Mount. Let us listen to them : — 

"Lay not up for } T ourselves treasures upon earth, where 
moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and 
steal." (We must bear in mind that the word treasures does 
not mean the same as wealth. Great possessions in cattle or 
land for instance, or in money put out to interest, would not 
be included in the word ; for it means only that which is 
stored away and not used for the present, whether gold and 
silver, or splendid robes and tapestries, or other such valua- 
bles, or corn. ) ' ' But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, 
where neither moth nor rust corrupts, and where no thieves 
break through or steal." Ity these treasures Jesus means 
good deeds and all that merits an entrance into the kingdom 
of heaven. When the kingdom is founded, its citizens 
will receive here upon earth those treasures which God 
preserves for them meanwhile in heaven. And the words 
that follow show us why this choice is of such supreme 
importance: "For where your treasure is, there will your 
heart be also." 1 

Luke, or rather his Ebionite authority, makes all this refer 
simply to the merits of voluntaiy povert\ T : "Sell all your 
goods, and give the produce in alms. Make yourselves 
purses that grow not old, and a treasure that never fails, in 
heaven." But what Jesus really meant was, that a man can- 

1 Matthew vi. iy-21: Luke xii. 33, 34. 



VOCATION OF THE CITIZENS OF GOD'S KINGDOM. 109 

not pursue divided aims. " No. one can serve two masters." 
The absolute allegiance due from the slave to his master can- 
not possibly be divided. "Either he will hate the one and 
love the other, or he will cleave to the one and despise the 
other ; you cannot serve both God and Mammon " (that is 
ivealth). To one of the two, and one only, can the heart 
cling and the life be dedicated. You can set before you as 
the object of your life either the support of all that is good 
and pure and noble, or the gaining of worldly goods ; but the 
attempt to combine the two is vain. 1 

80 the follower of Jesus must wean his heart from all 
wprldly things. "Take no anxious thought for 3*0111' life, 
what you shall eat and what you shall drink ; nor for your 
body, what you shall put 011. Is not the life more than food, 
and the bocty than raiment?" Then will not God, who has 
given 3*011 the greater gift, provide the lesser also? " Con- 
sider the birds of heaven. They sow not, neither do they 
reap, nor gather into barns, 3*et your heavenly Father feeds 
them. Are not you worth much more than the}*? Which 
of you by anxious thought can add a span to his lifetime ? 
And why take thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of 
the field, how they grow ; the}' toil not, neither do the}' spin, 
and }'et I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory 
was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothe the 
grass which grows in the field to-da} T and is cast into the fire 
to-morrow, shall he not much more clothe 3*011, O 3*e of little 
faith ? Then take no anxious thought, saying : What shall 
we eat? or what shall we drink? or wherewith shall we be 
clothed? For after all these do the heathen seek. Your 
heavenh* Father knows that you have need of all these. But 
seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness ; and 
all these earthly things shall be given with it. Be not anxious 
for the morrow, then ; the morrow will bring its own cares 
with it. Sufficient to the da3* is the evil thereof." 2 

In the same tone and with similar illustrations from 
Nature, he warned his disciples on another occasion not to 
shrink from mortal danger in preaching the kingdom of God. 
" Be not afraid of men who destroy the body but cannot kill 
the soul. Rather fear the might of Him who can destroy 
both soul and body in Gehenna. Are not two sparrows sold 
for a halfpenny ? and yet not one of them falls dead to earth 
without }*our Father's will. Na3 T ! the very hairs of youi 

1 Matthew vi. 24 (Luke xvi. 13). 

2 Matthew vi. 25-34 (Luke xii. 22-31). 

VOL. III. 8 



170 VOCATION OF THE CITIZENS OF GOD'S KINGDOM. 

head are all numbered. Fear not, then ! you are worth 
more than many sparrows." * 

Let us pause a moment, and think over what we have heard. 
Will this kind of reasoning hold good ? Can we realty banish 
human cares by thinking of flowers and birds ? Do we think 
it a lofty virtue to be so careless of material wants, so in- 
different as to worldly goods? Far from it. Indeed, such 
confidence is often put to shame. Though Nature is so or- 
dained upon the whole that man and beast are saved from 
perishing of want, yet there are exceptions to the rule ; and 
instances, alas ! are not so rare, especially in our Northern 
climates, of human creatures dying of hunger or cold, or both. 
Besides, this view of life is altogether one-sided. It takes no 
account of the great and certain facts that work, at once a duty 
and a blessing, is holy in the highest sense ; that forethought, 
not to be confused with vain anxiet}', is not a sin, but the 
dictate of a healthy conscience ; that the faithful performance 
of the daily duties of our occupation is a great part of religion ; 
that we are not only permitted but positively bound to do our 
best to make our way in the world by honest work, and so 
contribute to the material well-being of societ}\ A piety that 
shrank from the world was far too common among the Chris- 
tians of the first century, and reached its culmination in the 
monastic life of later times ; and though it is not actually rec- 
ommended in these words of Jesus, there is a great deal in 
them that might nourish it. 

But in spite of all this there is a deep truth hidden in the 
words, a truth which we can feel even when we cannot define 
it. They fascinate us by their freshness, b} T the bright and 
jo3 T ous spirit they breathe, by the glow of conviction that 
surrounds them. It is true, in the first place, that God re- 
quires us to dedicate to him, not certain hours, certain forms, 
or certain specified actions, but our whole and undivided 
heart and life ; in other words, that all our affections and 
all our powers must be consecrated to the spread of what is 
good ; that God should be not only the last and highest, but 
the only goal of our thoughts and efforts, our work, our care, 
our wealth, — all that we have and are. In the next place, 
what gave Jesus such perfect trust in God was his absolute 
belief in His almighty providence, coupled with his deep and 
hoi}' confidence that eveiy thing material is subordinate to the 
moral life, and must be made subservient to its development. 
He never for a moment doubted theoretically in God's abso- 

i Matthew x. 28-31 (Luke xii. 4-7). 



VOCATION OF THE CITIZENS OF GOD'S KINGDOM. 171 

lute supremacy over all Nature and all the events of life, but 
we may well believe that the special strength and intensity 
of his trust in God was the result of his own experience. 
He, more than any other, had experienced the fact that his 
heavenly Father never let him want the needful nourishment 
and strengthening of spirit ; never failed to protect his soul in 
time of need, nor to uphold him in the fiercest temptation, so 
that opposition and suffering could not prevail against him, 
but were turned at last to blessings. And had not the supply 
of his material wants been thrown, as it were, into the bar- 
gain ? He had set aside all thought of them for the kingdom 
of God's sake, yet never had he lacked his daily food, and 
man}' a danger had been warded from his head. His own 
experience, then, compelled him to speak as we have heard. 

Again, to do full justice to this lesson, w« must transport 
ourselves to the time, and place ourselves am.d the surround- 
ings, of Jesus. We will lay no special stress upon the fact 
that in the East Nature is far more bountiful, and human 
wants proportionately easier to satisfy, than with us. It is 
much more to the purpose that the cliury of increasing the ma- 
terial prosperity of the world could hardly be dreamed of at 
such a time as that of Jesus and the Apostles. Outside the 
circle of Jewish devotees, society was godless to the very core, 
and the world was licentious beyond all parallel. Moreover, 
Jesus and all the pious Jews believed most firmly that the 
founding of the kingdom of God w^ould soon put an end to the 
whole existing order of societ} 7 , the corruption of which did 
much to strengthen the belief. But the most important point 
of all that we must notice is, that a new religious movement, 
such as that which Jesus caused, must of necessity give rise 
to special efforts and special regulations ; must compel those 
who take part in it to break off connections, to relinquish en- 
joyments, and to defy difficulties which will assuredly reassert 
their claims in the ordinary course of life. When first the 
faith in man's higher destiny burst forth in all its clearness 
and power, was it not inevitable that men should neglect all 
lower, all material things in the joy of that discovery ? And 
finally, we must observe that these words are uttered not by 
way of consolation, but of rebuke. Jesus gives all doubting, 
hesitating souls the result of his experience and thought, and 
urges them to imitate his deed of faith, to set the visible be- 
low the invisible, as he had done. 1 Surely he, too, must have 
asked himself when on the point of laying down his occupa- 

1 Compare 2 Corinthians iv. 18; Hebrews xi. 1 ff. 



172 THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. 

tion, '■' TV iiit shall I eat? what shall I drink? wherewith shall 
I be clothed ? " But he had silenced all such doubts by listen- 
ing to the voice of God within, and going whither he was 
called, without reserve. All worldly obstacles and earthly 
cares must be set aside. " Seek first the kingdom of God and 
his righteousness," he had said distinctly to himself, "and 
all these temporal things will be provided." And afterwards, 
' ' Why should I be afraid of men ? an Almighty power watches 
over me." We have no right, then, to unravel these expres- 
sions of trust, and to ask whether Jesus expected God to work 
miracles on occasion to preserve his life. He neither asked 
nor expected miracles on his behalf. He had no rounded 
system to explain how it was all to happen ; but this one 
thing he knew, that it was the kingdom of God, and that 
alone, upon which he must bestow his every thought, to which 
he must direct his every effort, in which he must seek his only 
wealth. 

And the life-choice he himself had made, and which expe- 
rience had justified so fully, that choice he urged upon all 
others, and demanded from his followers. We shall find him 
constantly insisting upon this decisive choice. Surely he had 
a right to do so. 

In thus describing the vocation of the citizens of God's 
kingdom he unintentionally drew his own likeness, and this 
thought gives new value to his parables and exhortations ; for 
who can gaze upon that image and withhold the fulness of 
respect and admiration ? But he requires more than respect 
and admiration from us. He demands the homage of our 
imitation. \ 



Chapter XIII. 

THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. 

Matthew XVIII. 12-14. 

WE have now submitted a considerable part of the teach- 
ing of Jesus to a special examination. In the fol- 
lowing chapters we shall hear and see how the principles 
contained therein controlled his views of many subjects, and 
dictated his conduct towards mairy classes of mankind and 
under many varied circumstances. But let us first pause a 
moment to look back, and ask ourselves whether we have dis- 



THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. 173 

covered what the grand central thought of Jesus really was. 
Our object in doing so is not only to form a clear conception 
of the connection and unity of his teaching and the point upon 
which it converges, but still more to put ourselves into a posi- 
tion from which wc can truly understand and justly estimate 
the line of conduct we shall see him pursue, and the judgments 
we shall hear him pronounce. If once we have grasped his 
leading thought, we shall be able to explain his life as the in- 
finitely varied practice which is but the many-sided expression 
of the simple and uniform theory. 

But is it possible to sum up in a few short words the spirit 
of his teaching, 1 the new element he brought into life, the 
special thought that made his preaching a true gospel? 

Undoubtedly it is. We have incidentally referred to this 
distinguishing conception more than once already. Jesus 
taught no new S3'stem of religious doctrine ; indeed, strictly 
speaking, he cannot be said to have laid down a single fresh 
article of doctrinal faith. Nor did he teach a new scheme of 
morals. He had, indeed, certain new moral conceptions, but 
he never worked them into a systematic whole. This total 
absence of an} T thing like a formal sj'stem has come spontane- 
ously to light in the preceding chapters. What Jesus really 
did was to give utterance to a new principle, to make a sub- 
lime discoveiy, which explains all his work and all his teach- 
ing, and furnishes the ke}' to the mystery of his own religious 
genius. This new discovery, this great principle, ma}^ be de- 
scribed, according to the side from which it is approached, as 
the worth of man or the love of God. 

The worth of man ! Man, as man, is called to and des- 
tined for the highest moral perfection, and, as a consequence, 
the purest blessedness. Such was the inextinguishable faith 
of Jesus, his steadfast rule of conduct, his life's unalterable 
motto. And it was altogether new. In the Roman empire 
the individual was of no importance except as a part of the 
great whole, as a citizen of Rome. In Israel man had no 
rights, no hope, except as a member of the chosen race, a son 
of Abraham. But for Jesus, man as man had sacred and 
inalienable rights and a worth that nothing could transcend. 
And in the mind of Jesus, who brought all things straight into 
connection with God, this truth assumed this form : Man is by 
nature God's own child, is capable of bearing God's image, 
and is the object of H;s infinite affection. The Supreme 
Power, before which man bows in adoration, which has traced 
i See p. 150. 



174 THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. 

its inlelible law upon his heart, is a power of love , and man's 
inmost nature i? akin to it. Man is akin to God. God is our 
Father. This great, this glorious truth was discovered and 
proclaimed by Jesus ; and its meaning for each one of us is, 
that to do and to be good is his true nature and his highest 
blessedness. It is because man is so truly great, that, as a 
spiritual being, he must trample down all that is material or 
push it altogether into the background, since it is too poor 
and worthless to be the object of his care. It was because 
each human being has such infinite significance that Jesus 
felt himself most strongly drawn towards the poor, the op- 
pressed, the despised of the world ; for they had only their 
humanity to live by, only their humanity to live for. -That 
was their passport to his heart. The first beatitude that 
passed his lips refers to them. Pointing to them, the Judge 
declares to the righteous, " What ye have clone to one of the 
least of these, my brothers, you have done to me ; " and of 
them Jesus said, making it the crowning work of his ministry, 
"The poor have the gospel preached unto them." 1 It was 
because the worth of man lies in nothing external, but simply 
in his being man and therefore the child of God, that Jesus 
laid such stress on humility and childlike simplicity. Worldly 
rank is so absolutely insignificant that no man should be 
puffed up by it. 

Jesus quickened in his hearers the sense of their own dig- 
nity as moral beings, and at the same time taught them re- 
spect for the humblest and least of their fellow-men. As a 
specimen of the way in which he made these twin results flow 
from his common principle, we may give the following sa} T - 
ings. We do not vouch for their having been uttered in the 
order in which they have come down to us, hy Jesus himself; 
but in their present form the} r are certainly knit together into 
a single whole by that one central conception. Jesus is speak- 
ing of " offences," that is to say, of all that tempts us to sin 
or unbelief, to faithlessness to the higher life and things 
invisible. He sa} T s : — 

" He who receives a little child like this, in my name, re- 
ceives me ; 2 but for him who offends one of these little ones, 
it were better that a millstone were hung about his neck and 
he were cast into the sea ! Woe to the world because of 
offences ! for offences must needs come ; yet woe to him by 
whom they come ! If your hand or your foot offend you, cut 
it off and cast it from you ! It is better to go into life maimed 
i Matthew xi. 5 2 Matthew xviii. 5 (Mark ix. 37; Luke ix. 48V 



THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. 17? 

or crippled than to be cast into eternal fire with two hands or 
feet. And if your eye offend } t ou, pluck it out and cast it 
from 3'ou ! It is better to go into life with one eye than to 
have two eyes and be cast into Gehenna. Beware of despis- 
ing one of these little ones ! For I tell you that their guardian 
angels, as the first in rank, look upon the face of my Father 
in heaven at all times." l And then he speaks of the divine 
syrupatlry with these little ones under the sweet and touching 
imagery of that well-known parable : tc What think you? If 
a man have a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, does 
he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go and seek 
the one that has strayed ? And if he should chance to find it, 
does he not rejoice more over that one than over the ninety-nine 
that never strayed? Even so it is the steadfast will of your 
Father in heaven that not one of these little ones be lost." 2 

Such was the fountain of his deep and inexhaustible love 
of man. We have spoken already of his compassionate S3 T m- 
pathy. We constantly read in the Gospels of his being stirred 
with intensest pit}' for the multitudes, because of their sad and 
weaiy plight, as of sheep without a shepherd ; 3 and we shall 
see that he turned with special zeal to ' ' the lost sheep of 
Israel's fold," to the notorious " sinners." Such was the im- 
pulse of his heart, which he could not disobey. So he called 
to him all who were " weaiy and heavy laden," and promised 
" I will give you rest." k ' Take my } T oke upon you," he said, 
" and learn of me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and 
you shall find rest for your souls. For my } T oke is easy, and 
my burden light." 4 But we must clearly understand what 
this compassion was. The feeling that inspired Jesus with 
tenderness towards all men however insignificant, however 
sinful, had not a touch of that lofty condescension which often 
passes for sympathy. It was a feeling of unbounded rever- 
ence for their humanity. It was on the foundation of this 
respect that the temple of his love was reared. Even the 
most degraded human being was still an artistic masterpiece 
fashioned by the Great Artist, God. As such he must be 
handled tenderly and reverentially, even while the stains that 
marred his beauty were being cleansed. 

Do you ask how Jesus discovered this new truth of the 
worth of man and the love of God? We must not suppose, 

1 Luke xvii. 1, 2; Matthew xviii. 6-10 (Mark ix. 42-47). 

2 Matthew xviii. 12-14 ; compare Luke xv. 3-7. 

* Matthew ix. 36; Mark vi. 34. * Matthew xi. 28-30. 



176 THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM. 

on the strength of a few passages in the Gospels, that he 
ascended from the known to the unknown, and arguing from 
certain phenomena in the world of Nature and the world of 
Man 1 reasoned out the lofty conclusion ! No syllogisms or 
inferences led him to his great result. No strained intellec- 
tual effort, no profound speculation or deep line of argument 
brought him to this discovery. One of the latest writers of 
the New Testament attributes a sa}ing to him which he never 
really uttered, but which, nevertheless, is an exact reflection 
of the truth: "My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent 
me. If any man will do His will, he shall know of this doc- 
trine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." 2 
That is to sa} T , Jesus had not invented the truth he preached ; 
he had neither worked it out b} T his own penetration, nor 
woven it into a system by careful argument. The truth had 
revealed itself to his heart, and all that he did was to repro- 
duce as purely and faithfully as he could that which had forced 
itself upon him, so to speak ; that which he had learned by 
his own experience. He produced nothing, properlj' speak- 
ing. He simply translated, as best he could, the impressions 
and emotions he had received from the invisible world. Hence, 
too, the certainty and decision of his teaching. For he knew 
that he had something more and better to communicate than 
mere personal views or conclusions reached by argument, 
more and better than mere changing fallible opinions. What 
he strove to impart to others was that moral truth which he 
had learned by the surest method, — his own experience; 
those impressions he had received from God in his own innei 
life. For all the discoveries we make on intellectual or philo- 
sophic ground bear about them a more or less strongly marked 
character of uncertaint}' as the badge of their human origin. 
But we regard the questions of the moral life in a wholly dif- 
ferent light ; and rightly so. For here it is not we who find 
out the newly-discovered truth, but it that finds us out ; and 
it bears about it such a mark of its divine origin that we 
know it will never have to be surrendered, but is a conquest 
gained for ever. It was in himself, therefore, and by turn- 
ing to his own heart, that Jesus discovered who God is and 
what man is. By his own experience he had come to know 
that God is our Father, that He is love ; for he had experi- 
enced the indescribably sweet and irresistible attraction, the 
unutterably blessed influence, of that sacred Power above us, 
which unfolds its will in the human heart and conscience. 

1 Matthew v. 45, vii. 11, et <seq. * John vii. 16, 17. 



THE GOSPEL OF THE K1NGJ0OM. 177 

He had " tasted and seen" that unreserved obedience to this 
will is the fullest life, the purest joy; that communion with 
this God is peace to our souls ; that Gocl himself is our high- 
est good. And thus he had also come to know in himself 
the nature, the calling, the dignity, the destiny of man ; and 
the immeasurable treasure of his love, the singular strength 
of his sense of fellowship with others, his consciousness of 
brotherhood with all men, would not allow him to doubt one 
moment that what was true of him was true of all, no single 
one excepted. Hence the infinite esteem he endeavored to 
impress upon every one for each individual man, as some- 
thing higher than the world with all its treasures : " What 
does it profit a man to gain the whole world if he lose his ow T n 
soul, — if he lose himself? Or what shall a man give in ex- 
change for his own soul?" 1 

Now from this principle flow all those " new things" that 
Jesus brought forth from the treasure-chamber of his heart 
and offered to mankind. We shall have repeated occasion 
to note this. It was this principle in the strength of which 
he undertook the giant task of reforming the world ; and it is 
a principle so exalted that to this day it has never received 
its due in the bosom of Christianity, and though it is still 
striving for supremacy as it has ever striven, yet it is only 
few that so much as comprehend it, — few indeed that put it 
it into practice ! 

With this "gospel of the kingdom" Jesus journeyed all 
through Galilee, in every town and ever} 7 hamlet, preaching 
in the synagogues. Wherever he went he strove to heal the 
sickness of the soul, to bring the disheartened, the crushed, 
the sinful to themselves again, by making them feel the love 
of God. But this great task was far too much for the powders 
of a single man. " The harvest indeed is great," he said to 
his disciples, " but the laborers are few. Pray, then, to the 
Lord of the harvest, that he may send laborers to gather it 
in." 2 

i Matthew xvi. 26 (Mark viii. 36, 37; Luke ix. 25 > 
2 Matthew iv. 23, ix. 35, 37, 38 (Luke x. 2). 



8* 



178 THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 

Chapter XIV. 

THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 

M4tthew X. 1-14; Mark IX. 14-29; Luke VIII. 1-3, IX. 5162, 
XIV. 25-35.1 

YOU will remember that very soon after beginning his pub- 
lic work Jesus had drawn certain associates round him. 3 
During his stay at Capernaum and his journeys through Gal- 
ilee, others were from time to time moved by their own hearts 
or led b}^ his invitation to join him permanently. This was but 
natural. In Capernaum and the other cities of Galilee there 
could not fail to be those whose interest was thoroughly roused 
by what they heard, who longed to enjoy the new teacher's in- 
struction more continuously ; and who therefore determined 
to accompany him wherever he went, some for a longer, some 
for a shorter period, until domestic cares or the occupations 
the}^ had left recalled them, or until their zeal had cooled, or 
possibly the new master's free st3~le of thought and life had 
given them offence. And thus the number of his followers 
rose and fell. Indeed, tradition exaggerates the number of 
his hearers to thousands in some cases. 3 Those who con- 
stantly accompanied him, or at any rate proclaimed their 
intention of doing so, were called his disciples. 

There was nothing unusual in this. The ancient prophets 
were often supported by more or less numerous adherents, or 
at least associated one constant companion with their labors. 4 
In the days of Jesus the most celebrated Scribes had their 
avowed adherents, and we have already spoken of the disci- 
ples of John. 5 We should therefore naturally expect to find 
a body of disciples gathering round Jesus. And from this 
general bod}' he selected twelve special friends to be his con- 
stant companions. Whether he called them all at the same 
time, as Mark and Luke declare, or some at one .time and 
some at another, as is far more likely, in any case they ac- 
companied him on all his expeditions, and when possible eat 

1 Matthew viii. 19-22, x. 37-39, xvii. 14-21 ; Mark iii. 13-19, vi. 7-13; Luke 
vi. 12-16, ix. 1-6, 37-43 a. 

2 See pp. 127-129. 3 gee pp. 148, 149, and Luke xii. 1. 

4 Isaiah viii. 2, 16; Jeremiah xxxvi. 4; compare vol. ii. chap. xii. p. 138. 
* See pp. 108, 109. 



THE FRTENDS OF JESJS. 179 

at the same table and slept under the same roof with him 
To them accordingly we must first devote our attention. 

What made Jesus enter into such special relations with 
these twelve ? The field of his labors was so extended. He 
was not content simply to preach the kingdom of God to the 
multitudes, but must often turn to this or that individual 
man and strive to quicken his feeling of human dignity, his 
sense of God's love. And because this work was so great 
and varied he felt the pressing want of fellow-laborers. But 
he could not have such helpers unless he trained them to the 
work himself ; and this he could only do b} r keeping them con- 
stantly near him and under his influence, and so gradually 
fitting them for their task by his teaching and example. 

We must be on our guard against misconceptions. The 
names of Master and Disciple naturally suggest regular in- 
struction or the communication of a more or less elaborate 
set of doctrines ; but this idea is wholly misleading, for the 
Apostles afterwards show most unmistakably that they had 
never received any systematic teaching from Jesus. Indeed, 
he does not ever seem expressly to have communicated his 
special views on any doctrinal subject to them ; he merely 
taught them incidentally, as appropriate occasions offered 
themselves, or when he was directly questioned or pressed for 
instructions. Of course these Apostles heard more of his say- 
ings and exhortations than anj T one else did, and it is proba- 
bly to their care that we owe most of what has been preserved 
in the Gospels. But the position they took up afterwards, 
especially their fidelity to Jewish forms of worship, proves 
conclusively that, strictly speaking, Jesus taught no doctrine 
at all. Doctrinal instruction was never a part of his preach- 
ing ; and he contented himself with proclaiming a few great 
principles, and leaving his hearers free in most respects to 
apply them to the outward forms of religion for themselves. 
What we have already 1 said about Jesus as a teacher of the 
people applies equally well to his intercourse with his friends. 
His object was not to instruct them in the ordinary sense, but 
to educate them ; not to give them intellectual or doctrinal, 
but moral and religious, guidance ; not to stamp certain arti- 
cles of belief upon their minds, but to exercise an influence 
upon their hearts and consciences ; not to implant an}' thing 
in them, but to develop what was in them alread} 7 . There is 
no trace in his teaching of such special rules of life as those 
given by John ; a fact which sometimes scandalized the pioua 

1 See p. 147. 



180 THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 

Israelites. To use Ms own expression, he associated with 
his disciples as a bridegroom does with his groomsmen. He 
never made them fast, or observed that the}* had neglected to 
wash their hands before taking food ; nor did he even teach 
them a prayer, so that when the}' felt the want of one they 
bad to ask him for it. 1 From this perfect ease and freedom 
we may gather that the Twelve themselves did not belong to 
the devout and cultivated circles of the day ; otherwise such 
conduct would have been little to their taste. They were 
simple men of the people, of healthy and vigorous spirit, full 
of their own narrow and even coarse prejudices, but recep- 
tive and tractable enough on the whole, xery susceptible to 
impressions, and full of zeal. 

If Jesus laid any special stress on the number twelve, it was 
probably with a reference to the number of the tribes of an- 
cient Israel, which typified or foreshadowed the kingdom of 
God and the chosen people of the future. 2 But the number is 
certainly so far accidental that if Jesus had not been able to 
find as many as twelve whom he thought suited for the task 
he would have been content with fewer ; and if, on the other 
hand, after choosing the Twelve, he had met with others who 
seemed particularly well qualified, he would not have scrupled 
to increase the number. Luke tells us 3 that he called them 
Apostles (or " those sent out") ; but even if we substitute the 
Hebrew word that Jesus would have used for the Greek Apos- 
tle, the statement will still be incorrect. Long after the death 
of Jesus, when Paul rivalled or opposed the Twelve, and laid 
claim to the title of Apostle, — or still later when the apostolic 
doctrine or tradition began to be regarded as the standard of 
truth by which the disputes of the communities must be de- 
cided, — then the title of Apostle was said to have originated 
with Jesus himself; but during his lifetime the Twelve were 
simply called his disciples. 

The character, the position, and the occupation of most of 
these men are unknown to us. Besides the brothers Simon 
and Andrew (sons of Jona) , and James and John (sons of 
Zebedee), all of whom were fishermen, we find Philip and 
Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, James (the son of Al- 
phseus) and Lebbseus, Simon the Canaanite (or Zelot) and 
Judas of Karioth, a place in Judsea. Of these, Simon is em- 

1 Luke xi. 1. 

2 Matthew xix. 28 (Luke xxii. 30); Revelation xxi. 12, 14, 21; compare 
James i. 1. 

3 Luke vi. 13. 



THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 181 

phatically described as the first in the Jewish-Christian Gospel, 
as though he were the head of the Apostolic company. This 
agrees with the opinion prevalent in the apostolic age, but is 
quite contrary to the intention of Jesus. 1 We know this Simon 
as a man of a very lovable character, fier}' in spirit, quick in 
feeling, hasty in word and deed, sometimes to the point of 
headlong rashness. He bore the surname Cephas, or " rock," 
which, was translated into its Greek equivalent Peter, when 
the gospel was preached to the heathen world. He probably 
ow r ed it to some accidental circumstance unknown to us. Our 
Gospels tell us that Jesus himself gave him this name ; " 2 but 
with all his admirable qualities it was just in rock-like stead- 
fastness of purpose that Simon was altogether wanting. He 
is sometimes more like a reed shaken Ivy the wind than a rock, 
and we can hardly believe that Jesus was so completely mis 
taken in his estimate as to call him a rock. There is far 
more probabilit} T in the tradition that Jesus gave the name of 
Boanerges, or "sons of thunder," to James and John, in 
virtue of their impetuous and stornry force of character. 3 
Among the Twelve themselves, these three, to whom Andrew 
(Simon's brother, of whom we know nothing more) is some- 
times added, 4 were again selected to enjo} r the special confi- 
dence of their Master. They alwa} T s w r ent with him, even 
when from the nature of the case a greater company was 
impossible. 

As regards the others, we have only to observe that Mat- 
thew is called "the publican" in the first Gospel, through a 
confusion with Levi ; and that, instead of Lebbaeus, Thaddaeus 
appears in the second Gospel, and Judas, son of James, in 
the third Gospel and the Book of Acts. On this last point 
the tradition seems to have been uncertain, unless we are to 
account for the variation hj supposing that one of the original 
Twelve was removed b}' an early death, or fell away from 
Jesus. The second Simon appears to have formerly belonged 
to the party of the Zelots, 5 whence his surname. Finally, the 
last named of the Twelve, Judas Iscariot, is always spoken 
of as " the betra} T er." We shall meet w T ith him again in the 
history of the death of Jesus. 

Whether Jesus was fortunate in his choice is a question 
which we shall discuss presently. Here we need only observe 
that the remark already made with reference to the first four 

1 Compare Matthew xxiii. 6-12. ' 2 Compare Matthew xvi. 18. 

* Mark iii. 17. 4 Mark i. 29, xiii. 3. 

* See pp. 3-6. 



182 THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 

is equally applicable to the other eight, 1 — they must have 
known Jesus, and he must have singled them out and care- 
fully observed them before their calling. But on the side of 
Jesus the choice was still an act of faith in God ; an experi- 
ment or venture, the result of which he left in God's hands. 
This is the meaning of Luke's statement that Jesus went up 
a mountain one evening and spent the whole night in prayer 
to God, and when it was clay called his disciples to him and 
chose twelve of them. We must further note that none of 
these men had the faintest suspicion at first that the Master to 
whom they had attached themselves was to be the Messiah. 
The3 r followed him at first simply as a prophet or teacher of 
the people, and after a time more especially because he had 
given such a powerful stimulus to their expectation of the 
kingdom of God. 

Meanwhile the Gospels tell us not only that Jesus trained 
the Twelve to become his fellow- workers, but also that he 
actually began to set them to the work. On a certain day, 
we read, he called them to him and sent them out, two and 
two, to announce the approach of the kingdom of God, giving 
them power at the same time to cast out demons : — 

" Go to no heathen city, and enter no place in Samaria, 
but rather go to the lost sheep of the people of Israel. 

"Go forth and preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven 
is at hand ! ' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lep- 
ers, cast out devils. You have received without paying a 
price, give to others without asking payment. 

"Provide no money in 3^our girdles, no wallet, no extra 
coat or sandals or stick ; for the laborer is worth his 
maintenance. 

" And when you come to any city or village, inquire who 
is worthy of your choice, and remain with him until you 
leave the place. And when you enter his house give it your 
blessing ; and if the house be wortlvy, may the greeting of 
peace be fulfilled for it, but if not, let it return again to } t ou. 
And wherever they will not receive you nor listen to your 
words, when you leave the house or city shake the unclean 
dust from off your feet as a witness against it ! " 

Did Jesus really send out the Apostles thus? On the 
whole, we are inclined to think he did ; though niairy difficul- 
ties are involved in the supposition, and it is very hard to 
come to any conclusion. Let us examine the question a little 
more closely. In the first place, Mark and Luke tell us that 
1 See p. 127. 



THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 183 

the Apostles actually did go about preaching repentance ; that 
they cast out many devils ; anointed many sick people with 
oil and restored them to health ; and finally returned to Jesus 
with an account of all that they had done. Upon this, we 
are told, he took them aside to give them a little rest, for the 
people pressed upon them so incessantly that they had not 
even time to take food. But we have every reason to suspect 
that this is pure invention. The first G-ospel has not a word 
of it, probably because it was not mentioned by the oldest 
authorities. This is far more likely than that it was acciden- 
tal^ omitted. Matthew simply mentions that the Apostles 
were sent out on this mission, but he has never told us of 
their being chosen ; nor does he ever say what the}' did on 
their journey, or when they returned to Jesus. It is possible 
that this is an instance of superior historical accuracy, and 
that the real course of things was this : that the Twelve 
were summoned one at one time, another at another ; that 
the}' were afterwards sent out by Jesus to preach, but accom- 
plished little or nothing, and soon returned to the Master. 
But it is also possible that Matthew mentions the sending out, 
but not the return, because the Apostles were really com 
missioned by Jesus to preach to Israel, but not during his 
own life, so that the}' could not return to him. Again, we 
should have said that the disciples were too worldly-minded 
and too little penetrated by their Master's spirit to be quali- 
fied for heralds of the kingdom of heaven. But, then, Jesus 
was always inclined to judge of others by himself, and so to 
think better of men than they really deserved as yet. Finally, 
Matthew puts a discourse into the mouth of Jesus on this oc- 
casion, the greater part of which can only have been delivered 
during the last days of his life, when he foresaw that he must 
soon permanently hand over his life-task to his disciples. 1 
The case is somewhat different with the verses already quoted. 
The genuineness of a part of them is as well established as 
that of any saying of Jesus whatever, for Paul himself refers 
to them. 2 But are these elaborate regulations as to the equip- 
ment of the Apostles quite appropriate to a journey of a few 
days' duration only ? Does that precept to shake off the dust 
of the unfriendly city breathe the spirit of him who came not 
to destroy but to save? And, above all, the prohibition to 
preach to any one except the Jews certainly owes its origin 
to a later Jewish-Christian editor, who looked upon the Mes- 
sianic kingdom as the heritage of Israel alone. This prohi- 
1 Matthew x. 5 b.— i2. 2 1 Corinthians ix. 6 ff., especially verses 14, 18* 



184 THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 

bition is put first of all, as though it were the most important 
point ; as if the very nature of the case did not require the 
first words of the exhortation to be, " Go forth and preach ! " 
as if the great dispute of the apostolic times could have been 
present then to the mind of Jesus ; as if the disciples would 
have been likely to neglect their count^men on this little 
journey, and turn to heathens and Samaritans ; as if the 
"lost" Israelite was not almost on the same level as the 
" unclean " heathen and Samaritan ; and as if Jesus himself 
would have drawn back had he chanced to meet a heathen or 
Samaritan on his way ! 

But in spite of all this there is so much to be said in 
support of the Apostles realty having been sent out by Jesus 
that we cannot give up the fact itself. It might very natu- 
rally give rise to the name of Apostle. Jesus refers to it the 
evening before his death in a saying which has every appear- 
ance of being genuine. 1 In the exhortation itself there are 
one or two points that are hardly explicable as injunctions 
given to the disciples with a view to their labors after the 
death of Jesus. It may be noticed specialty that the sym- 
bolical description of their work, — healing the sick in soul, 
waking the indifferent from the sleep of death, cleansing those 
tainted with the leprosy of sin, together with their preaching 
of repentance and of the near approach of the kingdom of 
heaven, — all correspond very closely with the early work and 
teaching of Jesus himself. And finally the Master's need 
of fellow-workers was so great that we should almost have 
expected him to make some such experiment. 

But in any case it was no more than an experiment, and 
one which did not prove encouraging. If the disciples realty 
were sent out to preach by Jesus, their mission bore but little 
fruit and was not repeated. 

We have already said that the immediate followers of Jesus 
were not confined to the chosen Twelve. Even when we are 
told that he turned to his disciples we must generally under- 
stand the wider circle of followers, which rose and fell accord- 
ing to special circumstances. Of these disciples we know 
nothing ; but we cannot help thinking that some of them 
understood and applied, preserved and handed down their 
Master's principles better than the Apostles themselves. If 
so, we may trace to their influence the freer movement which 
made itself felt, soon after the death of Jesus, among the 

1 Luke xxii. 35. 



THE FKIENDS OF JESUS. 185 

communities that confessed his name. 1 All we know is that 
wherever Jesus went he found friends. During his stay in 
Jerusalem, at the end of his life, we shall find examples in 
Joseph of Arimathea, Simon of Bethany, the man who received 
him at Jerusalem, and the owner of the garden at Gethsemane. 
We have now to mention expressly and separately the women 
friends of Jesus. 

It seems that his preaching gained a ready hearing from 
the Jewish women, and made a deep impression on them. 
Women are generally more religious than men, and we are 
told by other authorities that the Jewish women specially 
favored the Pharisaic movement on account of its strictness. 
It is scarcely surprising, then, that Jesus should have excited 
their interest so thoroughly that not a few of them ranged 
themselves among his hearers, 2 and gave him frequent proofs 
of their reverential affection. 3 Accordingly, we find him ac- 
cused, on his trial, "of drawing women and children away 
from the true religion." 

It must have been exceedingly difficult, on ever} T ground, 
for women to attach themselves to a popular teacher who was 
constantly travelling from place to place. Indeed, domestic 
or other special duties would make it simply impossible in 
the majorhry of cases. But, in spite of all this, there were 
certain women who accompanied him on his last journey 
from Galilee to Jerusalem to the Passover ; 4 and not only 
so, but even while he was still travelling about in Galilee 
there were some who attached themselves as closely as pos- 
sible to the compan} T of his disciples, 5 going with him on his 
journeys, and enjoying his intercourse and his teaching. At 
the same time, they eagerly seized every occasion that pre- 
sented itself of being of service to him. 

For although the wants of Jesus and his twelve friends and 
other companions were to a large extent supplied by the 
liberal hospitality of the East, yet there must have been 
occasions upon which this hospitality left ample room for a 
woman's help to be of the greatest value. Even the bare 
sustenance of the travellers may sometimes have depended 
on the resources of these women, for the disciples had of 
course given up for the time the occupations by which they 
earned their bread, and few of them had airy fortune. This 

1 See p. 146. 2 Matthew xiv. 21, xv. 38. 

8 Matthew xix. 13, xxvi. 7; Luke xi. 27, xxiii. 27. 
4 Matthew xxvii. 55 (Mark xv. 41; Luke xxiii. 49). 
6 Lake viii. 1-3; compare Mark xv. 40, 41. 



186 TKE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 

assistance seems all the more natural when we observe that 
one of the women was the wife of Zebedee, and the mother 
of James and John. Mark calls her Salome. Another was 
Mary, the mother of James the Less and Joses ; so that if 
this James is the son of Alphgeus, which is not certain how- 
ever, she too was the mother of an Apostle. The mention 
of these women furnishes a very valuable clew to the teacher's 
means of subsistence. 

Most of their names have of course been forgotten, but a 
few have been preserved in one way or another. The best 
Known of them all is Maiy, who is alwa} T s mentioned before 
the rest, and is called Magdalene, after the place of her birth, 
to distinguish her from others of the same name. Luke also 
mentions Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's steward, and 
Susanna. He believes that all these women had been cured 
of possession, or some other disease, by Jesus, who had cast 
out seven devils from Mary Magdalene. Perhaps, in accord- 
ance with the idea that more than one evil spirit might fix 
upon the same victim, 1 this last trait signifies a high degree 
of nervous suffering. It is the same Evangelist who gives us 
the names of two other women who were among the friends 
of Jesus, and describes the following domestic scene : 2 — 

On one of his journeys Jesus came to a certain place in 
Galilee, where a woman called Martha received him. This 
woman had a sister, Mary, living with her, and both of them 
were proud to receive their guest, and busied themselves 
most zealously to make every thing go off well and entertain 
him pleasantly. But in the midst of their preparations Mary 
came into the room in which Jesus was speaking, — perhaps 
she came to fetch something, or to put things straight, — 
and there she stayed listening to what he said until she forgot 
the meal she was preparing, forgot her sister, forgot every 
thing, and sat down at his feet to listen. Of course it was 
not long before Martha missed her. At first she tried to 
manage without her, but she was so oppressed with all that 
there was to do, and so anxious about the meal she was get- 
ting ready, and wanted so much to consult her sister on this 
point and to get her to see after that, that at last she could 
bear it no longer ; and so she broke into the room, stood 
before Jesus, and, pointing to Ma^, cried with some excite- 
ment, "Rabbi! how can you let my sister desert me and 
leave me all the work ? Tell her to come and help me ! " But 
Jesus judged far otherwise of Mary's conduct. He felt the 

i Matthew xii. 45 ; Mark v. 9. 2 Luke x. 38-42 



THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 187 

Kindness of the good woman of the house, but the involun- 
tary homage of Mary's undivided thoughts pleased him far 
more. Mary had sought the kingdom of heaven before all, 
and that was why she had forgotten earthly things. And 
this was far better than even the kindest thought for his 
mere personal needs. "0 Martha, Martha!" he cried, 
shaming her with the gentle tones of his quiet and loving 
rebuke, " how man}' things trouble and perplex your soul! 
One thing is needful, and Mary has made the good choice 
from which she must not, cannot, be held back." 

We still possess a remarkable series of narratives which 
illustrate the unshrinking firmness and directness with which 
Jesus pressed upon his immediate followers that definite reso- 
lution to postpone all things to the kingdom of God which he 
had made himself and had prescribed to others. He was far 
from wishing to turn back airy one who desired to join him, 
but yet he did not accept all offers of assistance uncondition- 
ally. On the contrary, he met such offers with a solemn 
warning, and set forth his demands in the hardest possible 
form, that none might join him thoughtlessly and then repent 
their haste. 

For instance, once when he was on the point of crossing 
the lake (most likely when the wonderful impression made by 
his first appearance was still fresh) , a Scribe came to him and 
declared, "Master! I will follow you wheresoever } t ou go." 
Jesus did not repel him, but solemnly reminded him of what 
his offer meant. It meant the renunciation of all rest and 
ease, of all thoughts of a quiet, happy home ; it meant a life 
of weary wandering like that of the Master he would join. 
"Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the 
Son of Man has not where to la} T his head." 

Another time one of his disciples came to him and said, 
" Master ! let me first go and bury my father." But Je- 
sus refused: "Follow me," he said, "and leave it to 
the (spiritualty) dead to bury their dead. As for you, 
you have weightier work to do, even to preach the king- 
dom of heaven." 

It was the need of " fellow-laborers for the harvest" that 
made Jesus utter such words. And so another time, when 
some one said to him, " I will follow you, Rabbi ! but let me 
first take leave of them at home," Jesus refused even this 
request. All former ties must be broken, or they would hin- 
der his followers in the task he laid upon them. "Whoso- 



188 THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 

ever puts his hand to the plough, and then looks back, is not 
lit to work for the kingdom of heaven." 

When we come to the journey to Jerusalem we shall meet 
with another similar event, but for the present these will 
suffice. It cannot be denied that the last two demands make 
a painful impression of unnatural hardness upon us. We 
cannot tell whether any special circumstances made these 
two men particularly likely to prove faithless to their good 
resolve if the}' delayed its execution or returned to bid their 
relatives farewell ; but the events seem to place us at a period 
when the opposition to Jesus had already risen high, and 
decision was more neeessaiy than ever. It is very impor- 
tant to bear in mind that these sayings do not stand alone, 
but are simply special applications of a general rule laid 
down hj Jesus. Once, when the eagerness to join him was 
more than usually strong, he said : " If any one comes to me 
and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, 
brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my 
disciple!" It need hardly be said that the word "hate" 
should not be taken literally. Matthew has " whosoeA'er 
loves them more than me," but " hate" is certainly the origi- 
nal word. The Hebrew idiom is characterized both by pov- 
erty in its vocabulary and by great poetic force, and Jesus 
intentionally chose the strongest possible word to express 
the definite choice and the definite victory in the contest 
between two irreconcilable dispositions. We must be ready, 
if need be, to shake ourselves entire fy free from our nearest 
and dearest relatives, to break every tie that binds us to 
them without hesitation or reserve, and even to sacrifice the 
love they bear us, for the great purpose of our lives. 

We shall see presently that Jesus himself had been com- 
pelled to satisfy this demand, had met and wrestled through 
this bitter necesshry, before he laid the claim upon others. He 
would have no half-hearted work. He demanded from others 
what he had given himself, — unconditional self-consecration 
to the task imposed by God, to the hastening of God's king- 
dom. No difficulties must be feared, ever} T hindrance must 
be swept away, extremest danger braved, and no sacrifice 
withheld ! And when the fidelit}' and steadfastness, the self- 
consecration and self-sacrifice, in a word the whole life of 
Jesus, had been crowned by his death on the cross, the 
demand he made from his disciples was thrown into a form 
which he cannot possibly have used himself, but which per- 
fectly embodies his spirit : ' ' No one can be my disciple who 



THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 189 

loes not take up his cross and follow me." It is certain that 
Jesus never used the word " cross" in a sense which would 
have been wholly unintelligible during his life ; but it is quite 
natural that the manner of his death should have made the 
"cross" the consecrated symbol, not indeed of suffering in 
general, but of the suffering endured for the kingdom of 
God's sake, the painful aspects of the Christian's life-task, 
with all its toil and strife and sorrow. The form of the saj- 
ing, then, is of later date, but the thought itself is certainly 
the thought of Jesus. 

Had he any right or any power to demand less from others 
than he had exacted of himself? It would have been an in- 
sult to them and treachery to the cause ! "A disciple is not 
above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is 
enough for the disciple to equal his teacher, and for the serv- 
ant to equal his master." 1 But then it was far better never 
to begin at all, than once having joined the teacher to desert 
him. If the salt had lost its savor it was fit for nothing. 2 
"Before you begin, reflect. Have 3011 the moral strength 
which such a work demands? Which one of } r ou, if he had 
resolved to build a tower, would not first sit down calmly and 
calculate how much it would cost, and whether he had the 
means of carrying out so great a work? Otherwise he might 
lay the foundation, and then discover, to his own confusion, 
that he could not finish the building itself; and all the 
passers-b}* who saw it would laugh him to scorn and say, 
' This man began to build, but he soon had to stop ! ' Think, 
then, once more ! Are you able to resist and overcome the 
entreaties, the tears, the threats, the scorn, the opposition of 
the strong and influential, — every thing, in short, that would 
draw you aside from the kingdom of God? If not, never 
enter upon the contest at all ! Suppose a tributary prince 
revolts, and the king to whom he owes allegiance advances 
with a great army to reduce him to obedience, does he not 
calmly and fully deliberate with his advisers and generals to 
see whether, under all the circumstances, he with his ten 
thousand men has any chance of offering a successful resist- 
ance to an enemy twice as numerous ? And if he sees that 
his power is insufficient he sends ambassadors, while the 
other is still far off, humbly to beg for terms of peace. Even 
so not one of you is fit to be nry disciple unless he is ready 
to give up every thing he has. Test yourselves, therefore, for 
much is involved in your choice." 

1 Matthew x. 24, 25 a. * See p. 163. 



190 THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 

We shall understand these stringent demands much better 
when we remember the high significance which Jesus at- 
tached to the personal work and influence of his fellow- 
laborers. The}' were to be " the salt of the earth, the light 
of the world." He urged them to la} T aside all care for tem- 
poral things, and to trust in God ; and declared that their 
final bliss would correspond to their loft}' calling. All this 
explains his paradoxical saying: 1 "He who finds his 
(earthly) life shall lose his (true) life, but he who loses his 
life [for m} T sake, for the truth, for the kingdom of God] shall 
find it." Or, as it is elsewhere put, 2 " He who seeks to save 
his life shall lose it, but he who loses it shall save it." This 
was his own motto, the rule from which his own life never 
swerved ; and by making the same demands of his disciples 
he shows his respect for them and his constant effort to put 
them on the same footing as himself. He employed them, 
indeed, as messengers and interpreters to give his teaching 
the utmost possible publicity, and said, "There is nothing 
secret that shall not be revealed, and nothing hidden that 
shall not be disclosed. What I tell you in darkness declare 
in light ; what you hear in the ear proclaim on the house- 
tops ; " 8 he sought to rouse their courage by the anticipation 
of rewards in the kingdom of heaven, and declared, " Who- 
soever confesses me before men, him will I confess before my 
heavenly Father ; whosoever denies me before men, him will 
I deny before my Father ; " 4 but he never lost sight of the 
essential equality he desired to establish between himself and 
them, and expressly declared, "He who receives } T ou re- 
ceives me ; and he who receives me receives Him who sent 
me." 5 

Many of these sayings were addressed in the first instance, 
if not exclusively, to the Twelve ; and to them, accordingly, 
our attention naturally returns. Did Jesus find his loft} T hopes 
in them fulfilled ? Had he cause to rejoice in the selection he had 
made, and in the labor he had bestowed in training his twelve 
companions? For the present we will leave the enigmatical 
character of Judas out of consideration ; but even then the 
question is hard to answer. The Twelve certainly remained 
true, even when hostility to their Master ran highest. It is 

1 Matthew x. 39 (Luke ix. 24). 

2 Mark viii. 35 (Matthew xvi. 25 ; Luke xvii. 33). 
8 Matthew x. 20, 27 (Luke xii. 2, 3). 

^ Matthew x. 32, 33 (Luke xii. 8, 9). 5 Matthew x, 40. 



THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 191 

their glory to have been faithful when many who had hailed 
the appearance of Jesus with acclamation dropped away from 
him. 1 The} T sacrificed every thing — relatives, employment, 
closest ties, and clearest interests — to join themselves to him, 
and work with him for the kingdom of God. 2 This was much. 
But Jesus had built so many hopes upon them ! He had hoped 
that they would understand him and sympathize with him ; 
that the} 7 would share his love and his zeal ; in a word, that 
they would in the highest sense live with him, and so recom 
pense him for the loss of that love from his nearest relatives 
that he had been obliged to sacrifice. 3 But it was not alone 
or chiefly of himself that he had thought. It was far more 
of the cause for which he labored, — the establishment of the 
kingdom of God. And in his most exalted expectations he 
was constantly disappointed. 4 It is true that he had often 
cause to rejoice. His gospel of the kingdom, which Scribes 
and Pharisees could not receive, found its way to simple souls ; 
and once he poured out the joy of his heart in the cry of 
praise : "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, 
that thou hast revealed these things to little children, though 
they be hidden from the wise and prudent. Even so, Father, 
for so it seemed good in thy sight ! " 5 and though we must 
not confine the application of these words to the Twelve 
alone, far less must we exclude them from it. But, on the 
other hand, he was often grievously disappointed in them. 

It is true that we must be on our guard in this matter as 
we read some of the stories in the Gospels ; for the writers 
sometimes seem purposely to place the Twelve — the Apos- 
tles of the Jews — in an unfavorable light. But the narra- 
tives are too consistent and too numerous to leave room for 
any serious doubt. More than once the Twelve offended 
their Master by their petty ambition and self-assertion, as 
they quarrelled about which was the greatest. Again and 
again he had to rebuke their pride ; and his exhortations to 
humility and ministering love, the only true greatness, seemed 
to make but little impression on them. 6 The one sought to 
take rank before the other, 7 and selfish and interested motives 
were by no means strange to them. No wonder, then, that 
they often showed their inability to comprehend their Mas- 

1 Luke xxii. 28. 2 Matthew xix. 27 (Mark x. 28 ; Luke xviii. 28). 

3 Matthew xii. 48-50 (Mark iii. 33-35; Luke viii. 21); Matthew xix. 29 
Mark x. 29, 30; Luke xviii. 29, 30). 

4 Compare pp. 129, 146, 184. 5 Matthew xi. 25, 26 (Luke x. 21 V 

6 Matthew xviii. 1; Mark ix. 34; Luke ix. 46, xxi. 24. 

7 Matthew xx 20-28 (MsrV x. 35-45). 



192 THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 

ter's teaching and principles. We are constantly told that 
they did not understand him, and he himself sometimes com- 
plains of their obtnseness. 1 The religions prejudices of their 
people were too deeply ingrained in them to be expelled by 
their Master's preaching of a spiritual kingdom ; and to the 
very last they dreamed of a king arra} T ed in outward splen- 
dor, and of posts of wealth and honor for themselves. Their 
ideas remained incurably material in spite of every warning. 2 
On one occasion they displeased Jesus greatly by trying to 
send away some little children that had been brought to him. 
There could not have been a clearer proof of how little they 
understood his spirit. 3 Another striking instance of this 
want of sympathy is recorded in a stoiy which accuratel}" 
depicts the disposition of the disciples, though its historical 
truth is by no means above suspicion. It runs as follows : 

Jesus had set out on his journey to Jerusalem. He in- 
tended to take the shortest way, which led through Samaria, 
and had sent on some of his disciples to the first village over 
the border to secure hospitality for the band of thirteen men. 
But the Samaritans refused to receive him, because he was 
on a journey to a feast at the Cit}* of the Temple, while they 
believed that Gerizim was the only place at which lawful 
worship could be offered. At this insult the sons of Zebedee 
burst into indignant wrath. " Lord ! " said the}', " shall we 
not call down fire from heaven to consume these wretches ? " 
The example of Elijah 4 was evidently before their minds. 
But Jesus turned round and rebuked them. Did they not 
know that as his disciples they must breathe a very differ- 
ent spirit from that of the great prophet of the ancient cove- 
nant? — not the stern spirit of wrath and vengeance, but the 
gentle spirit of redeeming, reconciling love. So the travel- 
lers went, at the command of Jesus, to another village. 

From the last period of Jesus' life in Galilee we have 
another stoiy, which should be mentioned here, for both in its 
original and its present form it was intended to show the 
slender capacity of the disciples. Let us listen to it : — 

Once on a time Jesus left his disciples alone for a little 
while, and when he returned he found them surrounded by 
a crowd of people, and hard pressed by certain Scribes. 
When he asked what it meant, one of the crowd cried out, 
iS Master ! I brought my son here because he has a devil that 

1 Mark iv. 13, vi. 52. vii. 17, 18, ix 6. 10. 32. x. 38. 

2 Matthew xvi. 22, 23, xx. 20-23 (Mark viii. 32, 33, x. 35-40). 

3 See p. 174. 4 2 Kings i. 10-12; compare vol. ii. chap. xi. p. 124. 



THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 193 

makes him dumb ; and when it seizes him he has fearful con- 
vulsions, and foams at the mouth and gnashes his teeth, and 
then falls clown motionless. And I asked your disciples to 
east out the devil, but they could not." When Jesus heard 
of the feebleness of his fellow -workers his patience for a 
moment gave way, and he cried, "O faithless and perverse 
generation ! How long shall I be with you ? How long shall 
L bear you? Bring him here to me ! " But hardly had the 
boy been brought to Jesus when he had another fit, and fell 
in convulsions to the ground, writhing and foaming at the 
mouth. "How long has he suffered thus?" said Jesus to 
the father. " Since infancy," was the reply ; " and the won- 
der is that he is still alive, for the devil has man}- a time 
hurled him into fire or water to kill him. But for pit}-'s sake 
help us if you can ! " " If I can?" repeated Jesus. " Ev- 
ery thing is possible to him who has faith." Then the father 
cried from the bottom of his heart, "I believe it. But my 
faith is weak. Help me ! " And Jesus, seeing how the 
people kept running to the place, turned to the bo} T and 
said, "Deaf and dumb spirit! I command you to come out 
of him and return to him no more ! " A shriek and a con- 
vulsion followed the command ; and then the child lay so 
still that most of the bystanders thought him dead. But 
Jesus took him by the hand and raised him ; and he stood 
up restored. A few moments afterwards, when the Master 
had retired to the house, his disciples asked him privately, 
" Why could not we drive it out? " And he replied, " This 
kind of devil cannot be expelled except by prayer and fast- 
ing." 

Matthew says that the boy was moon-struck, that is to sa} T , 
that he had regular attacks when the moon was waxing. 
Luke makes him an only child. In other respects Mark is 
the fullest. Several objections might be urged against the 
story in its completest form, but they are less applicable to 
the shorter and simpler narratives of the first and third Gos- 
pels. To take the last words of the story, for instance, how 
could Jesus enjoin those fasts which he never observed him- 
self, and from which he publicly released his disciples ? 1 
How could the boy hear what Jesus said, and shriek, if he 
was deaf and dumb ? But we hry no stress on these and other 
such points ; for the original and historical elements of the 
stoiy may probabbv still be detected. To say nothing of the 
great accuracy with which the symptoms are described, we 
1 Matthew ix. 15 (Mark ii. 19; Luke v. 34). 

VOL. III. 9 



194 THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 

may note that it is very probable that when the disciples, 
perhaps at the command or suggestion of Jesus himself, 
attempted to imitate him in curing demoniacs they some- 
times succeeded, but were sometimes put to shame. Now 
the record of such a failure is the chief object of this stor}', 
and it shows us that this practice of casting out devils, though 
undertaken in all sympatlry and love for the sufferers, was 
always a very delicate affair. 1 A failure, such as might well 
occur, threw the exorcist into a very critical position. But it 
is especially noteworthy that the disciples of Jesus did not 
even approach their Master's power. They fell far short of 
him, because they lacked that true self-reliance which is 
needed for success in any tiring. 2 For though the}' may have 
had enough of the self-confidence which often passes for true 
self-reliance, they had far too little of the real trust in them- 
selves which would urge them to pray, and would be strength- 
ened in its turn by praj-er ; which is religious in its very 
nature, and coincides with trust in God. It was, therefore, 
with a correct instinct that an undoubtedly genuine sa} T ing of 
Jesus, "he who has faith can do all things," was taken up 
into the story ; and this sa}'ing, together with the reproach 
that escaped the Master in a moment of impatience, consti- 
tutes another thoroughly historical feature of the narrative. 
To the power of faith nothing is impossible ! Such was 
indeed the motto of Jesus ; and Matthew therefore very 
appropriately makes him explain the failure of his disciples 
by the words, " It comes of your want of faith. For I tell 
you, if you had faith like a grain of mustard seed [small 
as yet, but full of life and power even now], you might 
say to this mountain, ' Depart hence ! ' and it would go ; and 
nothing would be impossible to you." 

A faith that "can remove mountains" of difficult}-, that 
can accomplish not only what seems impossible, but what 
would really be utterly impossible without it, — such a faith is 
spoken of elsewhere as well as here. 3 On another occasion, 
when the Twelve asked him to " increase their faith," Jesus 
is said to have answered in almost the same words : "If 
you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you might say to 
this mulberry tree, ' Be thou plucked up and planted in the 
sea ! ' and it would obey } T ou." It seems, then, that Jesus 
used this metaphor on more than one occasion. 4 

i See pp. 135, 136. 2 See pp. 135, 136. 

3 1 Corinthians xiii. 2; compare Psalm xlvi. 2. 

4 Matthew xxi. 21. 22: Mark xi. 22-24; Luke xvii. 5, 6; compare Mark 
xvi. 17, 18; Matthew xiv. 31. 



THE FRIENDS OF JESUS. 195 

In a word, the story gives us a faithful picture of the defi- 
ciencies of the disciples, or rather of their marked inferiority 
to their Master. And this leads us to a general remark. In- 
asmuch as the Twelve were always with Jesus, we involunta- 
rily make use of them to enable us to form a comparative 
estimate of the character of Jesus himself. And indeed they 
actually furnish the best basis for such an estimate we have. 
Regarded from this point of view, the disciples constantly 
displaj r so marked an inferiority, hardly admitting of any 
comparison at all, that we may safely say their lives and 
characters do more than an}' one or any thing else to bring 
the greatness of Jesus into the fall light. To excel among 
mean or commonplace companions is nothing ; but these 
disciples were men of any thing but ordinary virtue. They 
were the picked men of their time, and in man}^ respects 
were truly noble. What could exalt Jesus more than a com- 
parison which shows how far he stood above even such men 
as these ? If the Apostles make an unfavorable impression 
upon us, we must ascribe it to the fact that we always see 
them close b} T Jesus. Otherwise we should probably let many 
of their failings pass unnoticed ; but, as it is, they contrast too 
sharply with his exalted excellence. It is with no want of 
respect for them that we say, that their small-mindedness and 
his great nobility of soul ; their narrow prejudices and his strik- 
ing originality and unconditional fidelit}^ to truth ; their mate- 
rial expectations and his deep and spiritual conception of the 
kingdom of God ; their self-seeking impulses and his un- 
wearied steadfastness in self-denial and self-sacrifice ; their 
weakness and his moral strength ; their faithlessness and his 
mountain-moving faith, — all stand in such sharp contrast to 
each other that our wondering reverence for him rises each 
moment. 

From this account of the friends of Jesus it must be evi- 
dent that he, with all his longing to impart himself to others 
and find support in their sympatlry, must have felt a grievous 
want more than once in the course of his public ministry, — 
a feeling that he was not understood by any one, that he stood 
in a certain sense alone. This fate, indeed, he shared with 
other exceptionally great men who have been raised by their 
very loftiness of spirit far above those around them, and have 
longed in vain for attachments worthy of their great hearts 
and full communion with others in their highest life. It was 
only to God that Jesus could pour out all his soul without fear 
of being painfully checked. Once in the Gospel we catch the 



196 JESUS THE FRIEND OF SINNERS. 

ect.o of a sad assertion that his heavenly Father alone under- 
stood hhn, that no one knew him except God ; but the doc- 
trinal speculations of later times have misunderstood the 
saving, disguised it almost past recognition, and turned it 
into a piece of self-exaltation of which Jesus could not possi- 
bly have been guilt}'. 1 

In } T et another respect Jesus stood almost alone. He had 
not sought for personal friends so much as for fellow- workers ; 
for such he rightly judged were indispensable to the fulfil- 
ment of his giant task. And in this hope also he found 
himself, at least for the moment, disappointed. But still he 
judged of others by himself, and never doubted that the} T 
might become like him ; however far from him they stood as 
3 T et, still he trusted that the}' would at last be strong enough 2 
for tasks for which they were not fit as yet. He seems also 
to have foreseen the possibility that was afterwards realized, 
and for which he must have hoped, — the possibility that 
others might excel the Twelve in influence and zeal for the 
kingdom of God, and so take rank above them. 3 

Meanwhile he sought and found in God strength to pursue 
his way. In Him Jesus was never disappointed. Whatever 
demands were made on him, communion with his Father, and 
His all-sufficient strength, enabled him to accomplish his task 
even though he stood alone. 

Was not this true greatness ? 



Chapter XV. 

JESUS THE FRIEND OF SINNERS. 
Matthew VIII. 1-4, IX. 1-13 ; Luke VII. 36-50, XV. 8-10.4 

" T3EH0LD my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved 
JD in whom my soul has pleasure ! I will lay m} r spirit 
on him, and he shall proclaim righteousness to the heathen. 
He shall not contend nor cry out, and no one shall hear his 
voice in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, a 

1 Matthew xi. 27 (Luke x. 22). 

2 Matthew xix. 28 (Luke xxii. 30). 

3 Matthew xix. 30, xx. 23 (Mark x. 31. 40). 

4 Mark i. 40-ii. 17 ; Luke v. 12-32. 



JESUS THE FRIEND OP SINNERS. 197 

smoking flax- wick shall he not quench, . . . till he has made 
righteousness to triumph. And on his name shall the heathen 
hope." In some such words had the second Isaiah, five cen- 
turies before our era, described the servant of Yahweh, who 
should restore Israel and be the light of the nations ; x and 
Matthew cites the words as finding their fulfilment in Jesus, 
especially in his unassuming manner and his scrupulous avoid- 
ance of any kind of ostentation. 2 In this beautiful and faith- 
ful description there is one point which marks with wonderful 
delicacy the conduct of Jesus to the sinners among his people. 
The bruised reed he does not break : when he meets the 
wretched and downcast, overpowered by his sense of guilt 
and helplessness, he does not take away his last hope of de- 
liverance by stern rebukes and severe demands, but he devotes 
his whole powers to the task of raising him up again, sup- 
porting him with a gentle hand, and helping him to regain his 
moral strength. If the lamp-wick still smokes he quenches 
it not : when he meets those in whom a spark of life still 
glows, though the contempt of all the virtuous and pious 
threatens to extinguish it for ever, he does not give them over 
to despair and ruin b} T his haughty bearing, but draws them 
to him with a tenderness and gentle phry the like of which were 
never seen ; cherishes the living spark, and kindles it into a 
steady flame. 

A few of the narratives contained in our Gospels will 
suffice to show the simple truth of this account of Jesus ; 
and at the same time the} 7 will illustrate the manner in which 
he first took up his task as the herald of the kingdom of 
God. 

To avoid any misunderstanding, we must first explain ex- 
actly who are meant by "sinners." Nothing is more com- 
mon than to sa} r that all men are sinners ; but neither could 
an} T thing be more opposed to the language of the Gospels. 
In them the word must always be understood as having its 
full and original meaning, and applying only to a special 
set of men. Paul was the first to apply it to all mankind 
before the time of Christ, and to all who had not believed in 
him afterwards. 8 And hence arose the more general applica- 
tion of the term with which we are familiar. Here we may 
note in passing the very remarkable fact that Paul has exer- 
cised a far more powerful influence upon the doctrines and be- 
liefs of Christians than Jesus himself. Jesus never dreamed 

1 Isaiah xlii. 1-4. See vol. ii. chap. x. p. 417. 

2 Matthew xii 17-21. 3 Romans iii. 9 ff., v. 8, 12 ff 



198 JESUS THE FRIEND OP SINNERS. 

of putting all mankind on the same level ; and he cer- 
tainly drew the distinction, sanctioned b} r daily experience, 
between the good and the bad, between righteous men and 
sinners. 1 

The word " sinners," when used in the Gospels, refers in 
the first instance to a distinctly defined class of persons ; 
those, namely, who had been expelled from the synagogue. 
We know that every sjmagogue had its ruler and its elders. 
These officers, in their corporate capacity, had certain powers 
for maintaining church discipline and pronouncing legal judg- 
ments. They sometimes inflicted corporal punishments, 2 and 
sometimes excommunicated those who had been guilty of 
anj^ grievous trespass against patriotism, religion, or moral- 
ity. 3 Those against whom this sentence was passed were not 
allowed to enter the synagogue, and it is to them in the first 
instance that the word " sinner" is applied. " A woman w r ho 
was a sinner" generally means a prostitute. 

The most notorious members of the class were the "pub 
licans," or officials, of whatever rank, appointed by the Ro 
man knights who were responsible for the taxes. Companies 
of these knights held contracts with the Roman government, 
generally lasting over five years, by which they engaged to 
pay the state a fixed sum on account of the import and ex- 
port duties and other taxes of the provinces, which imposts 
they then levied on their own account, often stooping to the 
most shameful means of making their bargain profitable. Of 
course all their subordinates and accomplices in this system 
of knavery and extortion caught at a share in the proceeds. 
These officials, then, were regarded as thieves and robbers ; 
and not only so, but as traitors to their country, who took 
sides with the Roman oppressor for the vilest purposes of 
selfishness and avarice. And inasmuch as it appeared to 
many unlawful to pay tribute to an}' but Israel's true and only 
Lord, 4 the publicans who collected the Roman tribute were 
considered impious as well as traitorous. No wonder, then, 
that they were despised and hated, cast out of the synagogue 
and denounced as infamous. Their evidence against other 
Jews was not accepted b} r the judge, their last will and testa- 
ment was void, and their till was cursed so that no one might 
change money at it. 

1 Matthew v. 45, ix. 13 ; Luke vi. 32-34, xv. 7. 

2 Matthew x. 17, xxiii. 34 ; 2 Corinthians xi. 24. 

3 John ix. 22, xii. 42, xvi. 2. 

4 Matthew xxii. 15 ff. See p. 89. 



JESUS TKE FRIEND OF SINNERS. 199 

Publicans and all other ' ' sinners " were ranked with the 
heathen, 1 were excluded from civil and ecclesiastical commu- 
nion with the Jews, and were cut off from the rights and pri- 
vileges of the chosen people of the Lord Even the richest 
of them were shut out from all religious and respectable cir- 
cles, and were shunned as " unclean," — a fearful word at the 
time of Jesus, for the idea of (Levitical) " cleanness" com- 
pletely dominated Jewish societ}\ The publicans, on their 
side, avenged themselves by ever increasing extortion, con- 
soled themselves with each other's society, and too often 
sought relief in lives of abandoned viciousness. 2 Many of 
them sank so low that at last they even despised themselves, 
and seemed in all eyes, even in their own, to be lost for ever. 

Now these men Jesus drew to him. Nay more, he regarded 
it as his special mission to restore his lost and sinful country- 
men. He declared expressly and repeatedly, "The Son of 
Man is come to seek and to save the lost ; " 3 his mission was 
in the first place directed to these ' ' lost sheep of the house of 
Israel." 4 But we must observe that this expression does not 
refer exclusively to the publicans and those who had been 
sentenced b} T the church. It includes all the outcasts from 
Jewish society, all those classes known in the Talmud as " the 
peoples of the land," wiio from ignorance or carelessness had 
transgressed the laws of ceremonial purity, whether b} r asso- 
ciating with heathens (w r ho were very numerous in Galilee) 
or in airy other way. These people had sunk below the aver- 
age cultivation and (legal) piet} T , had perhaps seldom or never 
seen the glories of the temple, and had certainly never been 
duly instructed in the Jewish doctrines, or, if they had, had 
never understood them. There were among them some who 
were capable of better things, and who eagerly longed for 
salvation ; but in the general opinion they were hardly, if at all, 
distinguished from the sinners. They were all alike unclean. 
The teachers of the Law never troubled themselves about 
them. They thought it beneath their dignit} T to descend to 
such a level, and did not even try to make them understand 
the Law and Prophets. Their condemnation was summed 
up in the words, "This people that knows not the Law is 
cursed ! " 5 

1 Compare Matthew v. 46, 47, with Luke vi. 32-34. See also Matthew 
xviii. 17, xxvi. 45 ; Galatians ii. 15. 

2 Matthew xxi. 31, 32 ; Luke vii. 34, xviii. 11, xix 8. See p. 106. 

s Matthew xviii. 11 ; Luke xix. 10. 4 Matthew x. 6, xv. 24. 

5 John vii. 49. 



200 JESUS THE FRIEND OF SINNERS. 

Such were the men to whom Jesus more especially turned. 
Possibly his thoughts had been directed to them even when 
he was still in his father's house ; for though he would not 
often come across them in Nazareth, since they were mostly 
to be found in the larger cities where the life and activity of 
Galilee was centred, jet his sympathy would be roused by the 
undisguised aversion with which he heard them mentioned, 
and his heart would tell him that this deep chasm, yawning 
between the unclean ones on the one hand and the chosen 
heritage of the Lord, the hallowed Israel, on the other hand 
must be filled up. While with John, he had been struck by 
the eagerness with which some of these outcasts received the 
preaching of the kingdom. 1 And when he himself began his 
work he felt impelled to rescue them, in the firm conviction 
that b} T so doing he would be removing one of the greatest 
obstacles to the coming of the kingdom of God. " I am come, 
not to call the righteous, but the sinners to enter into the 
kingdom of God." Though every one else gave them up, 
though the} r despaired even of themselves, yet he never des- 
paired of them. He would raise the bruised reed, and blow 
upon the smoking flax- wick ! 

When Jesus was at Capernaum his favorite walk was b} r the 
shore of the lake. As he went out of the town in this direc- 
tion he had to pass the customs-house. 2 And thus it happened 
that once, when he was returning home towards dinner-time, 
he saw one of the tax-gatherers sitting in front of the build- 
ing, and said to him, u Come home with me!" The man 
whom he addressed was called Levi, son of Alpkaeus, and he 
rose at once and followed him to his house. Jesus had prob- 
ably noticed before how eagerly this man had listened to his 
addresses and parables, though always staying at a respectful 
distance ; and with his fine knowledge of human nature he 
now read in the publican's eye the wish that he dared not 
utter, the wish that this invitation anticipated and satisfied. 
But now the ice was broken ; and when Levi lay at table with 
Jesus, some of his fellow tax-gatherers and other sinners came 
to seek the Master's society. Their courage and their trust 
were rewarded. Jesus applied the laws of Eastern hospitality 
to them too, and received them at his table. This was a de- 
cisive step that could not fail to excite both surprise and in- 
dignation. Some of the Pharisaic Scribes, too, had observed 
him; and, seeing what had happened, they expressed their 

i See pp. 107, 113, 114. 2 See p. 125. 



JESUS THE FRIEND OF SINNERS. 201 

horror to uis disciples : ' ' Why, he is eating with sinners and 
publicans ! " But Jesus heard them and replied : " It is not 
the health}^ but the sick that need the plrysician. I am not 
come to call the righteous, but sinners." 

We may note in passing that the first Evangelist misun- 
derstands the words addressed b}' Jesus to the publican, and 
supposes them to be a call to the apostolic office. He there- 
fore substitutes the name of Matthew for that of Levi, and 
accordingly describes Matthew as " the publican" when enu- 
merating the Apostles. 1 It is in reality very unlikely that 
Levi and Matthew are the same man, or that one of the 
Twelve was a tax-gatherer. Luke makes another mistake, 
and represents the meal as taking place at the house of Levi 
instead of that of Jesus. It is of far more consequence, 
however, that we should note the style of intercourse with 
these people which Jesus cultivated. He invited them to 
come to him, for the} T were so much accustomed to be con- 
temptuously repelled b} T every one that they would never 
have dared of their own accord to approach one who pro- 
claimed himself a prophet. Unless he had been the first to 
stretch out his hand, no relations between himself and such 
people as these could ever have been established. Hardly 
had he made the first step, however, before numbers of them 
pressed to him. The most extraordinary thing of all was 
that he ate with them. This was trampling at once upon the 
customs of religion and the rules of decency ; for to join any 
one at table was a kind of formal avowal of friendship, and 
established a permanent connection between the parties. 2 
Such an action, therefore, would by its very nature be re- 
peated, and the fair fame of Jesus himself soon began to 
suffer in some quarters from his constant intercourse with 
such a class of men. 3 And we must remember that, in thus 
associating with the unclean, he not only broke with all 
national, social, and religious prejudices, but must have en- 
countered much in the language, the manners, and the per- 
sons of these sinners that shocked his refined perceptions. 
It must have required a great effort from him, as from others, 
not to transfer to the trespasser the great loathing which he 
felt for the trespass, and never to lose sight even in the sin- 
ner of the brother man whom he could respect and love. 
Why did he make the effort, then ? Why did he seek the 
society of these men and treat them as his friends ? Simply 

1 Matthew x. 3. 2 Compare 1 Coriuthians v. 11; Galatians ii. 12. 

8 Luke vii. 34, xv. 1, 2. 

9* 



202 JESUS THE FRIEND OF SINNERS. 

because his heart impelled him to it. Pie felt that his first 
step must be to raise them up by quickening their sense of 
their own worth, and restoring them to self-respect. And 
he could only do this by showing them that he at least did 
n~>t think them too bad, too hopeless, to be associated with 
as friends. Not that he had deliberately argued out this line 
of conduct, but his fine perception led him to it instinctively. 
Indeed, to gain any influence over such outcasts he must 
treat them with still more frank and cordial friendship than 
he displayed to others. If he had only shown them a loft3 T 
condescension he could not possibly have healed them. 

And he had to heal them. He regarded and treated them 
as sick men. It was a characteristic saying of his, in which 
he defended his strange conduct, and openly declared that it 
was no accident that found him in such compairy ; that he 
did not intend to shun it in future, but that he bore a special 
commission to call the sinners into the kingdom of God, and 
had not come for the sake of the healthy or righteous. We 
must not press the saying too hard, and ask whether there is, 
or ever was, a man who could really be called altogether 
sound or righteous ; for in comparison with these sinners the 
portion of the people that was strictly faithful to the Lord 
and to his Law and temple might fairly be called devout and 
virtuous, and so not sick. 1 

This metaphor of the physician and his patients, which 
Jesus applied to himself and the sinners, gave rise to many 
emblematic representations. Indeed, it readily lent itself to 
every kind of elaboration ; and we find a typical counterpart 
to the very stor} T in which it is imbedded just before it. 
Here "the rescue of the publican" is simply altered into 
" the healing of the leper." But it may be said once for all 
that these s3'mbolical sketches do not refer to special definite 
occurrences. From the nature of the case they are generally 
types or specimens. And, indeed, many of the ordinary 
narratives of the Gospels — that of the invitation to Levi 
among them — must themselves be taken as mere specimens 
of the line of conduct or the experiences of Jesus. 

But to return to the emblematic stoiy of the leper. Once, 
we are told, a leper came to Jesus, bowed clown in reverence 
to the earth, and cried, "Lord! if thou wilt, thou canst 
make me clean." Jesus was deeply moved, stretched out 
his hand and touched him, saying, ;t I will. Be clean!" 
And immediately the hideous disease left him, and he was 
1 Compare, for example, Matthew xix. 17 b-20. 



JESUS THE FRIEND OF SINNERS. 2^3 

clean. Upon this Jesus dismissed him, sa}'ing, "Tell it to 
no one, bu go to Jerusalem, show yourself to the officiating 
priest, and make the sacrifice ordained in the Law." * 

How are we to interpret these last words ? Do the} 7 mean 
that Jesus forbade the publican to parade the fact of his 
conversion, and told him if possible to restore, according to 
the Law, 2 an} r thing he had exacted by deceit or extortion? 
Or did the Evangelists add the words because the}' accepted 
the story literally? However this rnay be, the} T certainly did 
understand the story literally, and consequently fell into 
exaggerations such as that the man was "full of leprosy" 
(Luke); or contradictions such as that "great multitudes 
followed him, . . . and Jesus said, ' Tell it to no one ' ' 
(Matthew) ; or pointless glosses such as that " the man pro- 
claimed it everywhere, so that all men came to Jesus, and 
he was obliged to withdraw into a desert place " (Matthew 
and Luke). But the broad lines of the original s} T mbolic 
sketch may still be traced. In the first place, the special 
disease is carefully chosen. The sinners were as unclean, 
were as anxiously avoided, were considered as incurable as 
the lepers themselves. And again, the longing to be cleansed 3 
and a reverential trust in Jesus were indispensable to the sal- 
vation of these outcasts. And yet again, — most striking 
and important of all, — Jesus touches the leper. Such an 
unheard of, almost incredible, act is a noble s3'inbol of the 
actual facts, a beautiful indication of that fine perception and 
delicate s} T mpathy which made Jesus the friend of sinners, 
which made him seek rather than shun the friendly relations 
of familiar intercourse with them. vSo onry can the lost be 
saved ! 

We will take another illustration of the friendship shown 
by Jesus to sinners. And here, again, we find two pictures, 
— one convej'ed in the ordinary, and the other in the emble- 
matic style of narrative. This time we shall let the copy 
precede the original. 

Jesus had just returned to Capernaum after a short absence ; 
and no sooner was it known that he was there than all the 
city went out to hear him, till the very door of his house was 
thronged all round. Then there came four men carrying a 
mattress, upon which lay a man struck with paralysis. He 

1 Leviticus xiii., xiv. 

2 Compare Luke xix. 8 with Exodus xxii. 1, 4; Numbers v 6, 7. 

3 Compare John v. 6. 



204 JESUS THE FRIEND OF SINNERS. 

wanted to come to Jesus and be healed, but it was impossible 
to get near him. What was to be done ? They were deter- 
mined not to go back disappointed ; so the}* hoisted the bed 
with the sick man in it to the roof, broke up the tiles, and 
carefully lowered the sufferer at the very feet of Jesus. The 
Master was struck by such an earnest desire for help and 
such great confidence in his power, in a word by such faith, 
and said to the man, ;t My son, be of good cheer ! Your sins 
are forgiven." Now there happened at the moment to be 
certain Scribes sitting by Jesus and conversing with him 
about the kingdom of God ; his words shocked them greatly, 
and they thought ' ' What blasphemy ! Who can forgive sins 
except God alone?" But Jesus saw what they felt, and said, 
" Why do you think evil in your hearts? Is it easier to say, 
-Your sins are forgiven,' or 'Stand up and walk' ? That 
you ma}* know then that the Son of Man has power upon earth 
to forgive sins " — here he turned suddenly to the sick man — 
"Stand up, take up your bed and return to your home!" 
And, behold ! the man stood up, and went home in the sight 
of them all ; and the}* were all amazed and praised God, 
saying, u We have never seen the like." 

We have given this story in its fullest form, as it appears 
in Mark and Luke. The symbolical interpretation is de- 
manded by the existence of a corresponding narrative in the 
fourth Gospel, 1 by details in the picture which do not admit 
of a literal interpretation, and, above all, by the fact that if 
interpreted literally it exhibits an inexplicable confusion of 
spiritual and material elements. What would be the sense 
of trying to cheer the sick man by promising that, on the 
strength of his great desire to be cured of paralysis, his sins 
should be forgiven? Again, the question addressed to the 
Scribes appears to compare two things together which are ab- 
solutely incapable of comparison, inasmuch as they have noth- 
ing whatever to do with each other ; namely, peace with God, 
and the use of one's limbs. Nor did it by any means follow 
that one who could restore a sick man to health had an unde- 
niable right to assure him that his sins were forgiven, for a 
miracle might be equally well ascribed to divine or diabolic 
agencies ; 2 and the question, " Is it easier to restore peace to 
a man's soul or health to his body ? " admits of a very differ- 
ent answer from that which the context indicates as the only 
possible one. On the other hand, every thing fits into ita 

1 John v. 1-15. 

2 Matthew xii. 24, xxiv. 24; Deuteronomy xiii. 1, 2. 



JESUS THE FRIEND UF SINNERS. 205 

place, and the whole narrative flows smoothly, if we bear in 
mind that the disease really meant is moral paralysis, the in- 
capachVy for good which evil habits have produced. The per- 
ception of the sufferer's passionate longing to be restored 
enabled Jesus to assure him that the sinful past was washed 
awa}* ; the devout bystanders were indignant at the restora- 
tion to honor of such a notorious sinner, and the story teaches 
the great truths that moral renovation is impossible unless 
preceded by forgiveness, and that he who has the power to 
bring a sinner back and make him tread the path of God's 
commandments has, indeed, the right to tell him that his sins 
have been forgiven. If this is what the story represents, the 
bystanders had good cause indeed to " glorify God." The 
narrative, then, might have been headed, " Moral Paralysis 
Cured by Jesus ! " and the emphasis falls not only upon the 
connection between forgiveness and restoration, but still 
more upon the difficulties which the sinner braved to come 
to Jesus, upon the faith to which his conduct testified, upon 
the indignation raised in the minds of the religions teachers 
by what Jesus did, and upon his own defence of it. 

We will now give the original of which this is a copy, and 
it will hardly be necessary to point out the similarity of the 
two. It runs as follows : — 

A pious man of the school of the Pharisees, whose name 
was Simon, had asked Jesus to dine with him. When he 
came at the usual hour he was received without much distinc- 
tion, and took his place among the other guests, who were of 
the same school as the host himself. But the meal had hardly 
begun before it was interrupted. The door was left open in 
accordance with the usages of Eastern hospitality ; for some 
one might come in, as often happened, in the course of the 
meal, perhaps to listen to the conversation. Now, through 
this open door there came a woman, which was strange enough 
in itself, for none but men were present. Simon looked at 
her with amazement. What ! Could he believe his eyes ? 
Was it that miserable and abandoned creature ? Dare she pol- 
lute his threshold? Yes, it was she, — "a woman who was 
a sinner." How came she there? She had heard Jesus, and 
a change had taken place in her heart. His presence and his 
preaching had completely overpowered her. She had hap- 
pened to hear wiiere he was being entertained, and she must 
and would follow him and do him homage. She left her house 
with an alabaster flask of ointment in her hand, and at the 
risk of being driven from the door like a dog by the master 



206 JESUS THE FRIEND OF 6INNERS. 

of the house, she went in quest of Jesus. She approached 
the place where he lay, leaning on his left arm, after the cus- 
tom of the t'me, with his face to the table, his body resting 
on a cushion, and his naked feet stretched backwards. There 
she bowed down her head and burst into tears as she kissed 
his feet in sign of deepest reverence, and bathed them in a flood 
of tears. Presently she recovered herself, and dried the feet, 
which she never ceased to kiss, with the luxuriant hair that 
hung loosely down her shoulders ; and, remembering the pur- 
pose for which she came, poured over them the precious 
contents of the flask she had brought with her. 

Meanwhile, the host could hardly contain his horror and 
contempt. Amazement and indignation had at first deprived 
him of utterance, and then he had kept quiet to see what 
would happen and what Jesus would do. He had seen 
enough now! "What!" thought lie, "will he let her kiss 
his feet, dry them, and anoint them? How loathsome is the 
thought ! Let who will hold him for prophet, I know he is 
none. Foi were he a prophet he would know who and what 
that creature is, and before he let her pollute him with her 
touch he would shake her off, and hurl the curse of the Lord 
upon her ! " Did JesMS see the contemptuous curl of Simon's 
lip? Did he read in his face the sense of loathing that filled 
him ? At any rate he broke the painful silence with the words : 
" Simon ! I should like to ask you something." " Speak on, 
Rabbi ! " answered Simon coldly. " A certain mone3'-lender," 
continued Jesus, "had two debtors, one of whom owed him 
five hundred denarii (sa} r £20) , and the other fifty (£2) . But 
when the debts fell due, and neither of the debtors could pa} T , 
he generously forgave them both. Which of the two do you 
suppose would love his benefactor most? " "A childish ques- 
tion," Simon may have thought ; but all he said was, " I sup- 
pose the man to whom he had remitted most." " Yes," said 
Jesus. Then he turned his head, and stretched out his hand 
towards the woman, whom he had left so far as though he had 
not noticed what she was doing, for he felt that this was the 
truest kindness to her. " Simon," he cried, " do you see this 
woman ? You think her still bowed down by the great guilt 
of many unpardonable sins. But consider. I came into your 
house. You did not so much as offer me water to wash my 
feet when I had put off my sandals, but this woman has wet 
my feet with her tears, and diied them with her hair. You 
gave me no kiss, but since she came in she has never ceased to 
kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she 



JESUS THE FRIEND OF SINNERS. 207 

aas anointed my feet with ointment. Has she not shown the 
fervor of her love? I tell yon, then, her man}' sins are for- 
given her. Her own conduct proves it. But," he continued 
in a quiet tone, wishing to give his host to understand what 
heavy witness his haughty conduct bore against him, "he to 
whom little is forgiven shows but little love." Meanwhile, the 
woman knew not whether she was dreaming or waking, and 
could scarce believe that he was really speaking about her. 
But now he turned to her and said, "Your sins are for- 
given ! " A scarcely audible murmur ran through the place, 
for the guests had been deeply shocked already by the fact 
of Jesus allowing the woman to touch him, and still more by 
his daring to make a kind of comparison between such a crea- 
ture and a man of approved piety and virtue like their host ; 
but now they exchanged indignant glances, and their looks 
beti^ed the thought : ' ' What does he suppose he is ? What 
right has he to forgive her sins?" But Jesus, taking no 
notice of the protest they implied, said to the woman, kt Your 
faith has saved you ; go in peace ! " and so, with a look of 
encouragement and sympatlry, he sent her on her way. 

The tradition of the Church has, without any reason, iden- 
tified this woman, of whom we know nothing more, with Mary 
of Magdala, who has thus become the express image or type 
of penitence. It is a matter of more importance to decide 
how far we maj T rely upon the truth of this story, which is 
one of the most beautiful in all the Gospels. It bears upon 
its face unmistakable signs of truth, not only in its indica- 
tions of the characters and actions of all concerned, but still 
more in the depth and refinement of the spiritual truth con- 
tained in the words of Jesus on the connection between for- 
giveness and love. 1 Yet we cannot doubt that certain unes- 
sential details, such as the alabaster flask of ointment and 
the name of the host, have slipped in from some other source ; 
for we read elsewhere of a certain woman, otherwise unknown 
to us, anointing Jesus in the house of a man named Simon ; 2 
and it is evident from the context that at that time no such 
mark of honor had ever been paid to him before. It is clear, 
therefore, that the account of the event just given was affected 
by this later incident, and that it is no longer possible to sa}~ 
exactly what took place in fact. It is inevitable that oral 
tradition should sometimes run stories into one another. But 
this does not at all affect the only point of real importance. 

I Luke vii. 41, 42. 47, 48. 

s Matthew xxvi. 6-13 (Mark xiv. 3-9); compare John xii 1-8. 



208 JESUS THE FRIEND OF SINNERS. 

Whatever did or did not happen on this occasion the essen- 
tial truth of the picture cannot be doubted. It reproduces 
with striking fidelity the attitude which Jesus took towards 
sinners. 

As we go along we shall meet from time to time with fur- 
ther illustrations of this subject. Thus, in discussing the 
relations of Jesus to the Pharisees, we shall see that the lat 
ter accused him of too great freedom in his intercourse with 
sinners ; on his journey to Jerusalem we shall find him 
described both emblematically and literally as the friend of 
publicans ; and finally, during his stay in Jerusalem, the 
stor} r of an adulteress who was brought before him will claim 
our attention. 

At present we will only give a few more examples of the 
way in which tradition worked out the metaphor by which 
Jesus compared himself to a physician of the sick. The first 
of these examples is given in all three Gospels. We shall 
put the later additions between brackets, to mark them off 
from the older and simpler form of the story : — 

A certain woman who had suffered for twelve years from a 
disease that made her unclean according to the Law [and 
had never been able to obtain relief, though she had spent 
her substance in the attempt] , came behind Jesus in the mid- 
dle of a crowd, and seized hold of the fringe of his garment ; 
" for," said she to herself, " if only I can touch his garment, 
I shall be saved." [Now a healing power did indeed go out 
from Jesus to the woman, but not without his perceiving it.] 
Then Jesus turned round and [asked who had touched him. 
His disciples, who only noticed the multitude that pressed 
upon him, and not the poor woman who had come to him 
for help, attempted in vain to persuade him that it was an 
idle question. At last the woman herself came forward 
trembling, threw herself upon the ground before him, and in 
the presence of the people declared what she had done. 
Then Jesus] cheered her with the words, ''Daughter, your 
faith has saved you, go in peace ! " 1 

The following stories are each of them found in one Gos- 
pel only : — 

Two blind men once followed Jesus in the street and 

cried, " Son of David, have pity on us ! " He went into his 

house, and they followed him. At last he turned round to 

them and said earnestly, ' ' Do you really believe that I can 

* Matthew ix. 20-22 (Mark v. 25-34; Luke viii. 43-48). 



JESUS THE FRIEND OF SINNERS. 209 

help you?" "Yes, Lord!" the}- answered, unhesitatingly. 
Then he laid his hand upon their eyes, and said, " Let it be 
to you according to your faith ; " and immediately their sight 
was restored. He strictly forbade them to tell it to any one, 
but in vain. 1 

Another time, when he was on a journey, they brought 
him a deaf man who had also a great impediment in his 
speech, and besought him to lay his hands on him and cure 
him. He took the unfortunate man aside, put a finger in 
each of his ears, made spittle, and moistened his tongue with 
it. Then he looked up, heaved a deep sigh, and said in a 
commanding voice, " Ephphatha ! " that is, tw Be opened ! " 
And thereupon his ears were opened, and the impediment in 
his speech was gone, so that he could hear and speak as well 
<is others. Again Jesus forbade the man himself and those 
who had brought him to publish the event abroad, but they 
did it all the more, and every one cried out in amazement, 
"Truly, this Jesus fulfils his calling according to the Scrip- 
ture, for he makes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak ! " 2 

Yet again: A blind man was brought to Jesus at Beth- 
saida, in the North, with the humble petition that he would 
touch him. He took the blind man from his guide and led 
him outside the village. Then he made him stand still, spit 
on his eyes, put his hand over them, and when he had re- 
moved it asked him, " Do you see any thing?" The blind 
man stared and answered, " I can see people ; but confusedly, 
like trees walking." Jesus put his hand upon his eyes again, 
and when he removed it his sight was completely restored, 
both for near and distant objects. So the man was able to 
go home alone, but Jesus told him not to go through Beth 
saida. 3 

The Evangelists have taken all these stories literally, and 
have therefore added many details, especially in the last two, 
which are beside the real purpose of the narratives. But the 
essential feature common to them all is that Jesus touches 
the sufferers, or la}-s his hand upon them ; and this means 
that he rescued them by frankly entering into friendly inter- 
course with them. For there cannot be a doubt that these 
stories, as well as the more general accounts of how Jesus 
restored the use of lost powers or withered limbs to the crip- 
pled, the blind, the dumb, and the maimed, 4 were originally 
symbolical rather than literal in their meaning. They represent 

1 Matthew ix. 27-31. 2 Mark vii. 31-37. 

* Mark viii. 22-26. 4 Matthew xv. 29-31. 



210 JESUS THE FRIEND OF SINNERS. 

Jesus — the friend of sinners, the redeemer of the " peoples 
of the land " — as restoring to the spiritually blind* the percep- 
tion of the wa}^ of truth and the path of salvation ; giving the 
morally crippled power to walk after God's commandments ; 
teaching the deaf to hear his voice, his word of love, the 
dumb to speak his praise ; making the lepers clean, and re- 
storing the dead to life, — and so fulfilling the scriptural anti- 
cipations of the blessings of the Messianic age, 1 in which he 
himself saw his mission indicated. 2 

When Jesus speaks of sinners as " the sick," he describes 
by implication his whole method of dealing with them. He 
never denounces them, or threatens them with the wrath of 
God, or utters the stern sentence of a judge against them. 
It is puy that inspires him. And again, it is not the lofty 
pit} T that looks down upon the sufferers from on high, but the 
pity that is linked to unbounded reverence for the man never 
lost in the sinner ; the pit} T that goes out to meet the sufferers 
with tenderest sympathy, and gives itself up to them without 
reserve. Jesus had found the key to the sinner's heart by 
that love of man which was one with belief in the worth of 
man. From this point of view, perhaps the story of the 
repentant "woman who was a sinner" is the most striking 
of all. Jesus did not say to her, "Sin no more ! " for to 
continue in her evil ways would be impossible to her, and 
such an exhortation would have implied a cruel doubt, which 
Jesus would not injure her by entertaining. What he sa}'s 
about her is so clear and so profound that it not only gives 
us fresh insight into the workings of the human soul, but 
helps us to perceive how we ourselves stand with regard to 
our own past and God. Love is the only and the certain 
proof that our sins are forgiven. 

Jesus himself expressed his faith in the worth of man 
and the love of God in a simple image, with which we ma}' 
close our sketch of the sinner's friend : — 

If a woman has ten drachmas and misses one as she is 
counting them over, does she not light her lamp and sweep 
the dust out of the cracks and corners, and move about the 
furniture and look under the settle, and go on searching care- 
fully and unweariedly until she rinds it ? And when she finds 
the coin, does she not run out and call her friends and neigh- 
bors, and say, " Wish me joy ! for I had lost a drachma, but 
now I have found it again ! " And so, I tell } t ou, there is joy 
among God's angels when a sinner repents. 

1 Isaiah xxxv. 5, 6; compare xxix. 18, 19, xlii. 7, lxi. 1. 
3 Matthew xi. 5; compare Luke iv. 18-21. 



JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 211 



Chapter XVI. 

JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 

Mark II. 18-111. 6.1 

ONE of the most important and interesting questions we 
can ask about Jesus refers to the attitude he took to- 
wards the religion of Israel ; and we must therefore try to form 
a true idea of the extent to which he accepted the existing 
s} T stem, and the point at which his principles compelled him 
to depart from it, and so produced a religious revolution. 
The importance and the difficulty of the question will be read- 
ily understood when we reflect that it is, as it were, the focus 
of three apparent contradictions, which will force themselves 
upon us in succession as we continue our treatment of the 
narratives of the New Testament. Firstly : Jesus was put to 
death as a heretic ; but his faithful disciples and friends were 
afterwards left undisturbed as orthodox Jews. Secondly : 
Our Gospels record sayings and actions of Jesus which are in 
conflict with the Law ; but Paul, whose hands it would have 
strengthened infinitely to have been able to quote them, ap- 
pears to know nothing of them. Lastry and chiefly : Nothing 
was further from the thoughts of Jesus, from first to last, than 
the foundation of a new religion; which, nevertheless, turned 
out to be a prominent result of his life and work. It is obvi- 
ous that all this must be largel} T explained b} T the peculiar 
attitude he assumed towards the religion of his people. 

The passages which bear upon this subject are very numer- 
ous, but at present we shall only deal with such as are abso- 
lutely necessaiy to throw sufficient light upon the question we 
have asked, and such as will not demand special treatment in 
any other connection. Presently, when the threatening clouds 
begin to gather, when Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, when 
the final conflict deepens in the city itself, we shall constantly 
meet with examples to confirm our present conclusion. 

In the first place, then, we must remember that the relig- 
ious education that Jesus received in his father's house and in 
the synagogue must have disposed him reverently to observe 
the precepts of the Law, as well as the tradition which was 
1 Matthew ix. 14-17, xii. 1-14: Luke v. 33-vi. 11. 



212 JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 

regarded of equal authority, so long as they were not offen- 
sive or injurious to his moral sense. We must observe, also, 
that his own teaching was entirely free from doctrinal tenden- 
cies. If we put these two facts together, we shall conclude 
that the first collision between Jesus and the popular religion 
would be in no way of his own seeking, but would be pro- 
voked without smj direct intention on his part by the line of 
conduct he pursued ; and again, that he would never express 
an opinion about the Law and the tradition unless he had 
special occasion to do so, which would generally be when he 
was expressly challenged to declare his opinions. Now, 
among other matters, he was questioned or attacked in this 
way on the subjects of fasting and the observation of the 
Sabbath. 

The fact that he prescribed no fasts to his disciples could 
not fail in the long run to attract attention. The great day 
of atonement and the other general fasts were held binding 
on every Jew, and were doubtless observed by Jesus and his 
associates ; but it had become the established custom for 
every one who laid claim to a religious character to observe 
extra fasts from time to time. To do so was considered a 
sign of earnestness and a proof of piety. The strict Phari- 
sees chose for this purpose Thursday, the clay on which Moses 
was supposed to have ascended Sinai, and Monday, the da} r 
on which he came down. John had been very exacting in 
this respect ; and his followers continued faithfully to observe 
his injunctions as an act of penance on behalf of their people, 
in view of the great judgment to come. They, above all oth- 
ers, must have noticed with surprise that he who had taken 
up the work of John had adopted such a different course. 
On a certain daj T , accordingly, they came to him and asked, 
" Why do we and the Pharisees constantly fast, but your dis- 
ciples not ? " In his answer Jesus gave them clearly to un- 
derstand that, so far from attaching the smallest value to 
fasting in itself, he condemned it as an unnatural constraint 
whenever it was practised as a religious duty, as a meritori- 
ous deed, by those who were not spontaneously inclined to 
observe it. " Can the wedding guests mourn," he said, 
''while the bridegroom is with them?" The bridegroom's 
friends would never think of mourning during the seven days 
of the wedding feast, and no more would his disciples so long- 
as they could rejoice in his presence. "But the days will 
come," he added, " when the bridegroom has been taken away 
from them, and then they will fast." The wedding is a type 



JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 213 

of the Messianic kingdom ; and if Jesns compared himself 
to the bridegroom and referred to his separation from his 
disciples, apparently by death, it must have been at a late 
period in his public life. It is possible, however, that the 
words have been slightly altered to suit the event ; and that 
originally the stress fell upon the difference between the dis- 
ciples of John, who had lost their master, and his own disci- 
ples,, who rejoiced in the presence of theirs. But this is 
unimportant. The gist of the whole thing is that Jesus only 
sanctioned fasting when it was the natural expression of the 
sorrow of the heart. This principle not only changes the 
whole aspect of the special observance in dispute, but deprives 
all religious observances whatever of their meritorious char- 
acter. We must observe them if the needs of our own 
hearts urge us to do so, but not otherwise. 

Jesus well knew that he had enunciated quite a new prin- 
ciple. He knew that it was impossible for airy one who was 
still a slave to the old conception of the religious life to 
accept it. "No one would take a scrap of a new and un- 
shrunk piece of cloth to mend an old garment with. For if 
he did, then, as soon as the new patch got wet and shrunk, 
it would draw up the old cloth and make a worse rent than 
ever." No more can we force those who have accepted new 
principles to adhere strictly to old forms. "Nor do we put 
new wine that is still fermenting into old skins that have lost 
their elasticity and toughness. For if we did, then, as the 
camels carried the wine-skins on their backs, and the sun 
shone upon them, the wine would begin to work and the 
skins would burst. Then the wine would flow away, and 
the skins would be spoiled. But we put new wine into new 
skins, and both are preserved." 

Jesus expresses himself as clearly and strongly as pos- 
sible, though he makes use of figurative language. He draws 
a sharp contrast between old and new, and definitely declares 
that the two cannot be combined, and that every attempt to 
unite them is not only futile but destructive to them both. 
He demands emphatically that form and spirit shall be brought 
into perfect harmony. The third Evangelist, to whom this 
passage must have been specially acceptable, adds (skilfully 
enough though without authority) several details of his own. 
In the first place, he makes the question addressed to Jesus 
include a reference to the long and numerous prayers which 
the disciples of John and the Pharisees were commanded 
to repeat, and to which exactly the same principles would 



214 JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 

apply. Then he observes that if a man took a piece of a 
new garment to mend an old one, not only would the effect 
on the old one be incongruous, but it would be a great pity 
to spoil the new one. Finally, he concludes with the words, 
' ' And no one who has been drinking the old and mellowed 
wine desires the hot, new wine ; for he says, ' The old is 
good ! ' " This remark shows profound knowledge of human 
nature ; and as an apology for those who are attached to the 
old order of things it is equally humorous in form and kindly 
in spirit. Perhaps the words were never uttered by Jesus ; 
but they certainly breathe his spirit, and are quite wortlry 
of him. 

Here Mark and Luke neglect the order of time in favor of 
similarny of subject, and add at once an account of a two- 
fold violation of the Sabbath by Jesus. Soon after the Pass- 
over, as the ripe corn stood in the fields, Jesus and the Twelve 
were on their way to a neighboring village. The path led 
across some fields, but at a certain point the way was barred 
by some tangled ears of corn that la} T across the path. With- 
out much thinking what they were doing the disciples began 
to pull up some of the ears and clear the path. But certain 
Pharisees observed it, and at once turned to Jesus, whom 
they held responsible for it, saying, " What does this mean? 
The}^ are doing an unlawful deed, and on the Sabbath too ! " 
Jesus met them at once. He might have simply replied, 
" Necessuy has no law;" but he preferred to silence his 
critics once for all by following the recognized style of argu- 
ment of those days, and clothing his reply in the form of an 
appeal to a scriptural precedent: " Have jon never read in 
the Scripture what David did in his necessity ? How, when 
Abiathar was high priest, he took the shew-bread to satisfy 
his hunger and that of his companions, though it was not 
lawful for any one to eat it but the priests ? " We may re- 
mark, in passing, that here the Evangelist or Jesus himself 
makes a slight mistake ; for it was not Abiathar but his father 
Ahimelech who was chief priest w T hen the event referred to 
took place, and David had no one with him at the time. 1 But 
Jesus went farther. After fully exculpating his disciples, he 
went on boldly to lay down the rule, ;t The Sabbath is made 
for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son 
of Man is lord even of the Sabbath day." 

Wc must remember with what scrupulous care the stricter 
1 1 Samuel xxi. 1-6; compare vol. i. pp. 513, 516. 



JEJUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 215 

Jews observed the Sabbath ; how, for instance, the} r long ab- 
stained from even defending themselves in time of war on 
this da}' ; and how they determined, with ludicrous minute- 
ness, the exact extent and nature of the actions that might 
and might not be performed on the Sabbath. When we 
think of all this, we shall plainly see that Jesus was putting 
himself into direct opposition to the religion of his people, 
and even to the fourth commandment, when he announced 
the principle that the Sabbath was meant to serve man, not 
man the Sabbath ; that the commandment must not be made 
a burden, but in case of need or in the cause of duty might 
and must be neglected. It is true that one of the later Jewish 
Scribes uttered a saying that closely resembles that of Jesus : 
"The Sabbath is given to you, and you are b}^ no means 
given to the Sabbath." This was not the current Jewish doc- 
trine, however, but a very remarkable exception to the gen- 
eral rule. Moreover, Jesus not only declared the principle, 
but unhesitatingly put it into practice. 

So Jesus took the same view of the Sabbath as he did of 
fasts, and was equally bold in carrying out his views in either 
case. To observe the Sabbath was in itself of no consequence 
whatever. If it helped a man to reach his true destiny, let 
him abide lry it ; if not, he was at liberty to neglect it. 

According to Matthew and Luke, the disciples were not 
clearing the pathway, but plucking the ears and rubbing out 
the grains to eat because they were hungry. Matthew makes 
Jesus appeal, in defence of his disciples, not only to the ex- 
ample of David, but to the practice of the priests, who dese- 
crated every Sabbath by offering the sacrifices ordained for 
the day, 1 and yet were guiltless. In like manner Hillel, the 
most renowned of all the Jewish theologians, who had now 
been dead some thirty } T ears, had maintained the people's 
right to slaughter the paschal lamb even when the eve of the 
Passover fell on the Sabbath ; and it is not impossible that 
Jesus may have borrowed this argument from him. But 
whereas Hillel's purpose was to defend the priestly preroga- 
tive of the whole people, which was quite in the spirit of the 
Pharisees, Jesus gives the argument quite another turn by 
adding, " If the priests, as servants of the temple, are above 
the commandment, there is more than the temple here." He 
did not mean so much that he was personally of more impor- 
tance than the temple, as that his own vocation and that of 
his disciples — their work for the kingdom of God — was 

1 Numbers xxviii. 9, 10. 



216 JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 

more than the temple. But most likely these words were 
uttered on some other occasion. 

There was no lack of such occasions, for several attacks 
were made upon Jesus with special reference to the observ- 
ance of the Sabbath. He would not pause on the day of rest 
in his efforts to save sinners. To do so would, in his opin- 
ion, have been equivalent to hurling them to. destruction ; for, 
he felt that to leave a good deed undone was as bad as to do 
a man a direct injury. This idea is expressed in immediate 
connection with the preceding narrative in the following em- 
blematic form : — 

Once, on a Sabbath daj 7 , Jesus entered a sjmagogue. There 
was a man present who had a shrunken hand. The " Gospel 
of the Hebrews" — which, like our three Gospels, under- 
stands the story literally — sa} T s that this man was a stone- 
mason, and that he besought Jesus to heal him, and so save 
him from beggaiy. Ancient and modern commentators, on 
the other hand, have explained the story to mean that be- 
fore the coming of Jesus the hand of the pious Jew was 
made powerless Ity the Law to do the works of God. But 
let us hear the stoiy out! The Pharisees, in their anxious 
dread of trespasses against the Law, watched Jesus to see 
whether he would heal on the Sabbath. The}' must have 
known already that he was not "sound "upon this point, 
and if he now committed an act of inexcusable desecration 
they would accuse him before the council of the elders. But 
Jesus saw through their intent. " Go and stand in the mid- 
dle of the synagogue," he said to the sufferer. Then he 
asked those present, and especially the guardians of the Law, 
" What may we do on the Sabbath? — good, or evil? — save 
a soul, or kill it?" There was deep silence. Jesus cast a 
glance of mingled wrath and sadness upon those in whom 
prejudice had so darkened and obscured the natural sense of 
right and wrong, and then turning to the man, who was still 
standing in the midst of the assembly, he cried, " Stretch 
out your hand ! " and immediately it was restored, and was 
as strong and supple as the other. Doubl} T embittered b} r 
their own inability to answer the question Jesus had put to 
them, the Pharisees went out to take counsel how best to 
inflict upon the Sabbath-breaker the punishment he had 
incurred. 1 

According to Matthew, Jesus said on this occasion, " Sup- 
pose one of you had a single sheep and it fell into a hole on 

1 Numbers xv. 32-36. 



JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 217 

the Sabbath, would he not lay hold of it and lift it out? And 
how much more is a man worth than a sheep ! " It seems 
that Jesus used this argument, as altogether conclusive, on 
several occasions when justifying his conduct and endeavor- 
ing to bring his critics to better thoughts. At any rate we 
find it again in two other stories. The first refers to the 
cure on the Sabbath of one who was suffering from dropsy. 
The legists and Pharisees were observing Jesus, and pur- 
posely declined to answer his question, "Is it lawful to heal 
on the Sabbath day?" Then Jesus cured the sick man and 
sent him home, and turning upon his would-be accusers asked, 
" Suppose the son or even the ox of one of } t ou had fallen into 
a well on the Sabbath, would he not at once draw him out?" 
But they had no reply. 1 Again : Once he was teaching in a 
synagogue when a woman appeared who had been afflicted 
for eighteen } T ears try a demon that paralyzed her muscles. 
She was bent almost double, and could not stand upright. 
With deep compassion Jesus cried to her, " Woman ! } r ou are 
released from your affliction ! " and as he laid his hand upon 
her she immediately became upright, and offered fervent thanks 
to God. But the ruler of the synagogue was shocked 03- this 
desecration of the Sabbath, and } T et was afraid openly to re- 
buke the Master to his face. So he turned to the people and 
said sharply, "There are six working days! If any one 
wishes to be healed let him come upon one of them, and let 
the Sabbath be kept holy ! " But Jesus would not accept this 
indirect rebuke. "You hypocrites!" he cried, in all the 
force of his righteous indignation, "does not each one of 
3 r ou loose his ox or ass from the crib and water him at the 
trough or fountain on the Sabbath day ? And shall not this 
daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen 
} T ears, be loosed on the Sabbath day?" Thus his opponents 
were put to shame, and the people rejoiced in his glorious 
deeds. - 

If, as the Evangelists suppose, the question had really been 
one of healing bodily infirmities, we might reasonably ques- 
tion the weight of the argument, for the delay need only have 
been for a single day. But for moral diseases, where any 
delay may be fatal, the argument holds good. It matters lit- 
tle for our purpose whether the last two pictures represent the 
rescue of the heathen and the Jews respectively, or whether 
they simply refer in general to the work of Jesus in saving 
the lost. In either case the historical element in them is 

1 Luke xiv. 1-6; after an amended version. - Luke xiii. 10-17. 

VOL. III. 10 



218 JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 

simply this, that it was his uniform principle to postpone the 
observance of external religious ceremonies to the claims of 
humanity. He himself expressed the principle in a saying 
taken from Hosea, 1 " God asks for mercy and not sacrifice." 
This quotation is put into his mouth more than once, and it 
is probable that he often told those who found fault with him 
to ponder over the meaning of that saying of the prophet 
which they had never 3'et fulry understood. Matthew intio 
duces it once in the account of Jesus' invitation to the pub- 
lican, and once in the stoiy of the plucking the ears of corn, 
but in neither case has he placed it rightly. There are other 
genuine sayings floating about in the Gospels out of their true 
connection. 

For the sake of completeness we may mention here that 
the freedom with which Jesus treated the observance of the 
Sabbath, and the conflicts in which this freedom involved 
him, were so uniformly and firmly established in the tradi- 
tion, that even the spiritualized narratives of the fourth Gospel 
make him perform miracles of healing on the Sabbath.' 2 
Again, the following passage is preserved in an ancient 
manuscript of the New Testament : 3 "On the same day [on 
which his disciples plucked the ears of corn] he saw a man 
working on the Sabbath da} T , and said to him, ' Man ! if you 
know what you are doing you are blessed ; but if not, then 
you are accursed and a transgressor of the Law.' " We can- 
not accept this saying as authentic, for Jesus would never 
have praised airy one simply for neglecting the da} T of rest, 
even from the ripest conviction, unless at the call of duty. 
He kept faithfully to his own rule : " The Sabbath is made 
for man, is made for me ; " and so he used the da} T , and regu- 
larly visited the synagogue, for instance, at first for his own 
religious education, and then for that of others. He would 
certainly never have given needless cause of offence. 

Finally, he took the same position with regard to sacrifices 
as he did to fasting and the observance of the Sabbath. On 
this subject, however, he seldom had to express an opinion, 
since Galilee was so far removed from the temple and its rites. 
And even when he referred to the subject, during his sta} T at 
Jerusalem, it was onry indirectly, and for the sake of illus- 
trating a moral dut} T : " If you bring 3'our gift to the altar, 
and there remember that your brother has any thing against 
you, leave } T our gift before the altar. Hasten away and be 
reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your 
1 Hosea vi. 6. 2 John v. 1-17, ix. 8 After Luke vi. 4. 



JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 219 

gift." * If we remember that although the Scribe and the 
synagogue were already beginning to overshadow the priest 
and the temple, yet the offering of sacrifice was still consid- 
ered the one pre-eminent act of religion, we shall understand 
that it must have sounded highly irreverent and irreligious to 
suggest and even recommend that a man who was on the 
point of performing it should break off so abruptly. But 
Jesus was far from wishing to prohibit or dissuade his disci- 
ples from offering sacrifice. The later Ebionites misunder- 
stood his meaning when they put the words into his mouth, 
" I am come to make an end of sacrifices ; for until you 
cease to sacrifice, God's wrath will not cease to be upon you ! " 
But he made the law of sacrifice absolutely subordinate to the 
demands of the moral law, which demanded that quarrels 
should be reconciled and compensation given for injuries 
inflicted. When sacrifices interfered with the fulfilment of 
sacred duties, such as those of a child to Ms parents, then, 
and then only, he utterly condemned them. 2 What he said 
about the payment of tithes, even when performed with the 
most scrupulous minuteness, applied equally to sacrifices : 
ct Be not neglectful of these things ; but remember that jus- 
tice, mere}', and fidelity are the duties that come first." 8 Ir 
all this Jesus was thoroughly consistent. 



Chapter XVII. 

JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 

{Continued.) 

Matthew VII. 12, VI. 1-6, 16-18, V. 20-22, 27, 28, 33-48, 17. 4 

THE Talmud tells us a beautiful story about Hillel. A 
certain heathen, who probably wished to throw ridicule 
upon the numerous religious institutions and practices of the 
Jews, as consorting oddly with their doctrine of the unity of 
God, had gone to Shammai, the head of the opposite school 
to Hillel's, and told him that he wished to become a Jew and 
desired to receive instruction from him, but only on condition 
that the whole religious doctrine of the Jews should be im- 

Matthew v. 23, 24. 2 Matthew xv. 3-6. 

Matthew xxiii. 23; compare Michah vi. 8. - 4 Luke vi. 27-36. 



220 JESUS AN^ THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 

parted to him while he could stand upon one leg ! Shammai 
chased him from his door indignantly. The heathen was 
well enough pleased by this result, and went on to Hillel, 
expecting to make fun of him in the same wa}^. " Good, m\' 
son ! " answered the Rabbi gently, u make read}' and attend. 
' Do not to others what 30U would not have them do to you.' 
This is the substance of the Law ; the rest is only its 
application." 

In this golden saying Jesus must have found delight and 
satisfaction when first he heard it, and accordingly he adopted 
and promulgated it in a better form himself: kt Do to others 
what you would have them do to you ; for this is the Law 
and the Prophets." Thus boldly did he reduce the practice 
of religion to a single, all-embracing, moral principle. This 
uncompromising spirit was characteristic of Jesus ; for though 
we have seen again and again * that in dealing with the reli- 
gion of his people he kept cloar of doctrinal questions with 
singular tact, and confined himself to the sphere of morals ; 
though we shall presently see that even when he attacked 
any religious prejudice that was hurtful to the love of man, 
he substituted nothing but an emphatic warning, 2 — yet in 
spite of all his caution and moderation he would submit to 
no restraints whatever in upholding the sanctity of the moral 
law. 

We may naturally ask whether the agreement between 
Jesus and Hillel extends much bej'ond the form of words 
they used. The question is answered by the fact that the 
great theologian owed much of his fame to his various 
methods of interpretation ; that is to say, to the many arti- 
fices which he reduced to a system for twisting the Scripture 
into harnioiry with the wants of the age. This shows us at 
once that the distinction between Jesus and Hillel did not lie 
simply in the difference between a command and a prohibi- 
tion, but that Jesus unhesitatingly put into practice what the 
other treated as an abstract principle. 

It is also worth noticing that Jesus makes a very signifi- 
cant addition to the sajing of Hillel in the words, " and the 
Prophets." The Law and the Prophets is generally a compre- 
hensive formula for the Jewish religion or the Old Covenant ; 3 
tut in the mouth of Jesus 4 it means the Jewish religion laid 
down in the Mosaic law as conceived, interpreted, and applied 

i Compare pp. 148, 176, 179. 2 Luke xiii. 1-5. 

« Luke xvi. 16, 29, 31, xxiv. 27, 44, et seq. 
i Matthew vii. 12, xxii. 40 ; compare v. 17. 



JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 22 1 

by the prophets. Now the prophets, as we all know, emphat- 
ically declared that the demands of the moral law were of 
infinitely more importance than the external ordinances of 
religion, and even condemned the observance of the latter 
with the utmost severity in cases where the former were neg- 
lected. 1 In doing so the}- were, as a matter of fact, simply 
contending against the abuse of priestly authority and the 
precepts of a floating oral tradition ; for at that time (the 
eighth or seventh centuries B.C.) most of the laws now con- 
tained in the Pentateuch were still unwritten, and were not 
clothed with divine authority. Bnt neither Jesus nor any of 
his contemporaries had the least idea of this. They never 
doubted for a moment that Moses was really the author of 
the five books of the Law ; and, consequently, Jesus must 
have thought that all these passionate exclamations of the 
prophets were made with direct reference to the written reve- 
lation, — to the divine Law itself. 80 he fortified himself in 
his own mind, and still more in his controversies w r ith others, 
b} r the example of his great predecessors, — those champions 
inspired by God. Like them he considered all external ob- 
servances insignificant in comparison with a virtuous life ; 
like them he maintained the unconditional supremacy of the 
claims of moralUy, and therefore the freedom of the individ- 
ual with regard to all religious usages. The demands of 
morality were afterwards spoken of by Paul 2 as " the law 
written in the heart ; " and Jesus, too, regarded them as the 
original, unalterable, and supreme commandments of God. 
All outward ordinances were not only subordinate to these 
moral laws, but were in many cases mere perversions of the 
truth or concessions to human weakness. 3 From the proph- 
ets Jesus had first learned independent courage ; and in them 
he recognized to the last spirits akin to his own. From their 
armory he drew the weapons for his strife ; and though he 
attacked the traditional piety of his own times with severity 
and directness, he never for a moment doubted that he was 
true to Israel's religion, for he took his stand upon the teach- 
ing of the prophets. 4 u Mercy and not sacrifice! Justice, 
love, and truth are more than all the observances of worship ; 
for these latter are, after all, mere human ordinances ! " 

1 For example 1 Samuel xv. 22; Isaiah i. 11-17; Jeremiah vii. 21-23 ; Amos 
v 21-24. 

2 Romans ii. 15. 

s Matthew xv. 3, 4, 9, 11, xix. 4, 6-9, 17, 21, xxiii. 23; Mark ii. 27. 
* Hosea vi. 6: Michah vi. 8; Isaiah xxix. 13. 



222 JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 

He had need of such support, for his opinions were in 
direct conflict with the theory and practice of Israel's recog- 
nized leaders, and he never spared his opponents. Listen 
how he chastised them : — 

" Beware of doing your religious duties before the eyes of 
men, to be seen bj T them. If you do, you will have no reward 
from your heavenly Father. 

" When 3*ou give to the poor, make no flourish of trum- 
pets over it, as the lrypocrites do, for the} T display their deeds 
of charuy in the public streets, and jingle their contributions 
in the synagogues, to gain the praise of men. I tell 3'ou 
they haA r e received their reward alread}\ But when yon give 
to the poor, let not your left hand know what 3 T our right hand 
is doing, that your deeds of kindness may be secret. And 
3'our Father who sees in secret will reward jo\i. 

u And when 3 t ou pray, be not like the hypocrites who 
delight to stand and pra3 T in the s3'nagogues, or at the cor- 
ners of the streets, that the3 T ma3" be sure to be seen. I tell 
3 t ou they have received their reward already. But wiien 3-011 
pra3 T , go into 3 T our inner chamber, shut the door, and pra3~ to 
your Father who is in secret ; and 3-our Father who sees in 
secret will reward 3 T ou. 

" And when 3-ou wish to fast, never put on a dismal coun- 
tenance as the Irypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces 
that every one ma3' know the3~ are fasting. I tell jou. the3 r 
have received their reward already. But when 3-ou fast, 
anoint 3 T our head and wash 3 T our face, as if for a festival, that 
no one ma3 r know 3*ou are fasting save your Father who is in 
secret ; and 3-our Father who sees in secret will reward 3~ou." 

With what a masterly hand he throws off, in a few rapid 
touches, these brief but living portraitures ! A holy satire 
on every school or fashion that makes religion a coat to put 
off and on, a part to stud3 T , a thing of outward show! Can 
we not see that friend of the poor who is so proud of his chari- 
table disposition, but prouder still of his reputation for it? 
Can we not see the punctual devotee who goes to the S3 r na- 
gogue eveiy day to sa3' his prayers, but is not displeased should 
the hour sometimes overtake him in the street, especially at a 
much-frequented spot ? — then he stops short and offers up 
his long petition where he stands, while the passers-b3 T turn 
aside in reverence and lower their voices to a whisper ! Can 
we not see that saintly ascetic, with his head bowed down 
and strewed with ashes, with his unkempt hair and beard 
and his penitential garb ? The people point to him in won- 



JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 223 

der and say, "Fasting again! What a man he is! He 
never spares himself!" But we must not suppose that in 
these sketches Jesus was publicly exposing a set of impos- 
tors. In the first place, he was not addressing the people at 
all. These pictures, from their very nature, were suited not 
for a public discourse, but for the instruction of a smaller 
circle of disciples. But, again, these "hypocrites" were not 
conscious and deliberate impostors, who assumed the mask 
of religion simply to conceal their sins behind it, or who 
made a great public display of piety that they might give the 
rein to their evil passions in private. Nor when he warns 
his disciples, with great emphasis, on another occasion, 
against "the leaven of the Pharisees," and Luke adds 
" that is hypocrisy," 1 must we suppose that these men were 
hypocrites in the proper sense of the word. They did not 
try to deceive others, but the}' actually deceived themselves ; 
and their self-deception was as complete as it was common. 
The}' genuinely believed themselves to be earnest, good, reli- 
gious people, and the}' really lacked nothing — but the true 
principle of piety ! Nor had Jesus had an}' thing to say 
against their "righteousness" or good works in themselves. 
He neither rejected nor overturned any thing. Generous 
almsgiving, regular devotions, voluntary fasts, and all other 
religious observances met with his approval, " if only," as he 
said to his disciples, "vanity and self-satisfaction, the ap- 
plause of men or self-applause, do not become, perhaps with- 
out your knowing it, the motives of your actions. If they 
do, you will surely miss the reward which God lays up for 
the truly pious in return for every good work, — the reward 
which he will give them when the Messianic judgment is held 
and the kingdom of God established. Then say not, even to 
yourselves, how much you have given to the poor ; let your 
prayers be a secret between yourselves and God, and be con- 
tent, if need be, to pass for a worldling among men rather 
than hunt for their applause. Religious forms are only good 
when they express a genuine longing of the heart, and bear 
the stamp of truth and Nature." 

But we can easily see that the direction given by the Law 
to the piety of Israel would naturally tend to the complete 
resolution of religion into outward forms. It was enough 
to obey the precepts of the Law and the tradition, without 
questioning the heart. Jesus, then, was attacking the very 
essence of the piety of his day, not one of its degenerate 
1 Luke xii. 1. 



224 JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 

manifestations ; he was laying his axe to its root, not lopping 
off a sickly branch ! No doubt there are .still thousands of 
Christians whose religion, without their being at all aware of 
it, is a mere matter of display ; who pride themselves on 
their own good deeds, and whose contributions to benevolent 
objects are speculations made by vanity in the market of ap- 
plause. But their want of true sincerity is at variance with 
the religion they profess ; whereas the Jews of the time of 
Jesus were mere formalists, just because they were so sub- 
missive to the Law. 

Jesus was not thinking of the number but of the nature of 
good works, — not of religious observances themselves, but 
of the principle that ought to underlie them, — when he said 
to his followers, "I tell 3 r ou, unless your righteousness ex- 
ceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you cannot enter 
into the kingdom of heaven." He mentions the Scribes and 
Pharisees with respect, as the most pious people of the day, 
spending their whole lives in the pursuit of righteousness ; 
but they had not the true principle, and Jesus had a right to 
demand something more than their formal piety from his dis- 
ciples. So again we shall see that he once reminded a Jew 
who had fulfilled all the commandments of the Law that the 
one only thing he lacked was also the one only thing need- 
ful, — namely, love. 1 

So Jesus clearly perceived how sharply his own religion 
contrasted with that of his people ; and he worked out sev- 
eral examples of this contrast, which are contained, like the 
pictures of the u hypocrites," in a portion of the Sermon on 
the Mount. Here Jesus dwells, without the least reserve, 
upon the conflict of principle between the fundamental law — 
the charter, so to speak — of Israel, and the charter of the 
kingdom of God. 

But, to avoid misunderstanding, we must repeat that Jesus 
was firmly convinced that he was himself a good Israelite, 
and took his stand upon the ground of Israel's religion. Jt 
has often been said that he maintained the Law, but rejected 
the later doctrinal and ceremonial glosses of the tradition. 
But this is not true. Nor would such a distinction have had 
any great value, for the Law and the tradition came, to some 
extent at least, from the same hands, and breathed the same 
spirit ; namely, that of the Scribes. Moreover, the tradition 
contained some elements of the most exalted nature. And, 
i Matthew xix. 16-22. 



JESUS A.ND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 225 

apart from this, such a principle of selection could never have 
occurred to Jesus, for it would have involved the application 
of historical criticism, of which Jesus and his contemporaries 
knew nothing. For him, accordingly, Law and tradition 
were of equal authority, flowed in the same channel, and, 
in fact, were one. 1 He preserved, adopted, and defended 
against assailants much that was only contained in the tradi- 
tion-; 2 and many things that were written in the Law he 
rejected as mere human inventions, as concessions to the 
people's sins that could no longer be allowed, or as antiquated 
in principle. 3 Nor is it true that Jesus left the moral pre- 
cepts of the Law unchallenged, and abolished its ceremonial. 
On the contraiy, he never thought of such a thing as abolish- 
ing its ceremonial, and he vigorously condemned whatever he 
held to be unsatisfactory in its moral teaching. The fact is, 
that in separating and sifting the contents of the Law and 
the tradition he followed out the principles of the ancient 
prophets, and consulted nothing but his own judgment and 
the experience of his own soul. His standard was the knowl- 
edge of moral and religious truth which his own inner life 
had given him ; his object was to purge the religion of Israel 
from all the corrupt admixture and rescue it from all the un- 
favorable circumstances that had prevented (as he believed) 
its full application, and so to make its true power felt, its 
true gioiy seen ; to make it answer its true purpose, and fulfil 
its true destim', — in a word, to realize it. 4 What had been 
incipiently or imperfectly represented in Israel's religion from 
the first would (he believed) be realized in all its fulness in 
the kingdom of God ; and he himself had only to declare 
plainly what the commandments of the Law and the prom- 
ises of the prophets had implied. 5 He believed, therefore, 
that his new teaching was but the ripe fruit which the buds 
and blossoms of the old dispensation had already contained 
in germ. But whenever the old teaching in any wa}' op- 
posed or obstructed the new principle of religious life ; when- 
ever a precept of the Law appeared to be the outcome of the 
moral immaturity of early Israelite society, and had there- 
fore lost its meaning for the kingdom of God and become 
simply mischievous, — then he condemned it without reserve 
and without mere}*. 

1 Compare Matthew xv. 6, 11, xxiii. 2, 3. 

2 For instance, Matthew vi. 17. xviii. 10, xxii. 29. 

s For instance, Matthew xv. 11, 9, xix. 8, G, v. 38-42. 

4 Matthew v. 17. 

5 For instance, Matthew xxii. 29, 31, 32. 

10* 



£26 JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 

Let us listen to some of the examples of this contrast; We 
need not be surprised to find Jesus, apparently at least, set- 
ting up bis own authority as a lawgiver against the command- 
ments gitren by Moses to the forefathers. It does but show 
that he possessed that confidence in his own moral judgments 
without which he could not have heralded the kingdom of 
God, or borne witness to the moral ideal : — 

" You have heard that our forefathers were taught, ' Thou 
shalt not kill ; the murderer shall be sentenced by the magis- 
trates.' But I say that whoever is angry with his brother 
shall be sentenced by the magistrates, and whoever sa} T s 
' Fool ! ' to his brother shall be sentenced by the Sanhedrim ; 
but whoever sa} T s 'Scoundrel!' shall be condemned to the' 
fire of Gehenna." 

Jesus refers to the sixth commandment ; but since murder 
need not be contemplated among his hearers, who were fu- 
ture citizens of the kingdom of God, he set aside the letter 
of the Law and applied to anger what had formerly been the 
punishment of murder ; nay, he even increased the punish- 
ment should anger burst into invective or be blinded by fury. 
Thus only could the true purpose of the commandment be 
fulfilled, which was to dry up the bitter source of passion in 
the heart which circumstances might at any time foster into 
a murderous deed. As to the several stages of condemna- 
tion, two of them are borrowed from the judicial system of 
the day, and the third indicates that the crime is too heavy 
to be dealt with by any human tribunal ; but they are to be 
taken simply as expressing the increase and culmination of 
the guilt. 

A similar extension is given to the seventh commandment : 

" You have heard that it has been said, 'Thou shalt not 
commit adultery.' But I sslj to you that whoever looks upon 
a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with 
her in his heart." 

Here, too, the will is taken for the deed ; evil desire, the 
root of sin, is struck at, and its promptings are condemned. 

The nature of the third commandment puts it upon a 
slightly different footing : — 

"Again, you have heard that our forefathers were taught, 
' Thou shalt not swear falsely, but shalt keep the oath thou 
hast made to the Lord.' But I say to you, Swear not at all ; 
neither by the heaven, for it is God's throne ; nor b} T the 
earth, for it is his footstool ; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the 
city of the great king. And swear not by 3'our own head, 



JESUS AND THE RELIGION OP HIS PEOPLE. 227 

for you cannot make a single hair white or black. But let 
your ' }*es ! ' be yes, and } r our ' no ! ' no ; for whatever you 
say more comes from the Evil One." 

We shall return presently to the rabbinical subtleties to 
which Jesus here refers. We see at once that to his mind a 
commandment forbidding a man to break his word or break 
his oath implied such a low state of morality as to have losl 
aU significance for his hearers. So he substituted a strict 
prohibition of all oaths. To require an oath of his followers 
would be to do them a shameful and unmerited wrong, for it 
would imply a doubt as to their invincible love of truth ; and 
for any of them to take an oath would be a grievous and vol- 
'untaiy act of humiliation, inasmuch as it would justify a sus- 
picion against their honesty. Even an emphatic repetition 
of their "yes" or " no " would be contrar}^ to the spirit and 
intention of the Master ; and that is why we have followed 
the text of James x in preference to that of Matthew. To 
demand or to offer an} r further confirmation of a simple "yes" 
or " no " appeared to Jesus something more than a mere per- 
sonal slight. It was slander against human nature and con- 
tempt of human kind ; and as such was the work of the devil, 
the result of his influence in the world. At this point, then, 
Jesus, who does nothing by halves, comes into direct conflict 
with the Law. Neither that nor any thing else can divert his 
steady gaze from the realization of his ideal of societ} T . 

But the contrast is far sharper yet when he attacks the 
principle of the Mosaic penal code : — 

"You have heard that it has been said, 'An eye for an 
eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Resist not 
the evil-doer ; but if any one strikes }^ou on the right cheek, 
turn the left cheek to him also ; and if any one threatens to 
go to law to take your shirt from you, let him have your coat 
too ; and if any one presses you for a mile, carry his baggage 
two miles for him." 

The first Gospel weakens the passage b} r adding a saying 
that may be genuine, but if so was certainly not uttered on 
this occasion : " Give to him that asks of you, and turn not 
away from him who would borrow of you." These additional 
words simply enjoin benevolence and generosity, whereas 
the real contrast aims at nothing less than attacking the 
whole principle of retaliation. That is to say, it overthrows 
the very foundation of divine and human right upon which 
Jewish society was built ! It is true of course that we are 
1 James v. 12. 



228 JESUS ANO THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 

not to take the precepts literally. To follow out the first of 
them to ' the letter would be intensely aggravating instead of 
sootl.ing. But the general commandment not to return evil 
for evil, but rather to endure every outrage quietly and push 
submission to its utmost limits, was certainty meant to be 
obe} T ed in the strictest and widest sense. When inclined to 
call it humiliating or impossible to cany out such a princi- 
ple, we ought to remember that to exclude the least thought 
of anger, impatience, orvindictiveness, when we are ill-treated, 
shows no want of spirit, but the very highest exercise of moral 
power. And again, there is so much inherent and intrinsic 
goodness deep down in human nature that true gentleness 
must put the evil-doer to shame, and make him loathe his 
own wickedness. In a word, the evil in the world cannot be 
overcome by evil, but onty by good ; and social order would 
at least be better maintained by such conduct as that laid 
down by Jesus than by penal laws and houses of correction. 

How thoroughly Jesus was in earnest in this and his other 
demands appears from one concluding contrast between the 
old and the new principles. Here he comes to the very root 
of the moral life, — namely, faith in God, — and to the deepest, 
that is the religious, principle which must regulate the rela- 
tions of men to one another ; and here he gives expression to 
the hardest demand of the most exalted virtue : — 

u You have heard that it has been said, c Love your neigh- 
bor and hate 3 T our enemy.' But I say to } r ou, Love 3'our 
enemies and pray for them that persecute you, that you may 
be sons of the heavenly Father who makes his sun rise on the 
evil and the good, and sends his rain to the just and the 
unjust. 

" Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect ! M 

Here Jesus pushes the difference of principle that separated 
his teaching from Judaism to its utmost limits ; raises the 
demands of the gospel of the kingdom to the highest point ; 
and, by laying down such a course of action and pointing to 
such a goal for himself and others, unconsciously places his 
own exalted character in the strongest possible light. 

We must try to understand this saying fully. The last line 
forms a conclusion of surpassing beauty to the final contrast, 
and therefore to the whole series that reaches its climax in it ; 
but Matthew inserts just before it, "For if you love those 
that love you, what reward have you? Even the very publi- 
cans do the same. And if you only greet your brothers, what 
is that to boast of? The verv heathen themselves do the 



JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS f&GfLK. 229 

same." These additional words are evidently misplaced, nor 
are they strung to nearly so high a pitch as the saying they 
interrupt and weaken. "Your brothers" and " the heathen," 
however, are realty the classes to which Jesus refers as 
"j'our neighbor" and "your enemy," and this may be the 
reason wiry the passage was inserted here. Luke did not at 
all understand the saying, but interpreted " neighbor" and 
"enemy" in a narrower sense, and supposed that Jesus was 
dwelling on one of the many duties which were already recog- 
nized by Jew and heathen ; namely, the duty of loving one's 
personal enemies and returning good for evil. On this 
supposition he worked out the saying as follows : — 

" But to } t ou that hear I say, Love } T our enemies, do good 
to them that hate 3^011, bless them that curse you, pray for 
them that malign and persecute you. . . . For if j^ou do good 
to them that do good to } T ou, what thanks do you deserve ? 
Even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those of whom 
you hope to borrow, what thanks do you deserve? Even sin- 
ners lend each other money in hopes of the favor being re- 
turned. But 3'ou must love 3-our enemies and do good, and 
lend without hoping for any return ; then your reward will be 
great, and you will be sons of the Most High ; for he is gra- 
cious even to the unthankful and the wicked. Be merciful, 
then, even as your Father is merciful ! " 

What Jesus realty meant was something veiy different and 
much more than this. He was announcing his new religious 
principle of moral life in all its breadth. The Jewish religion 
insisted on religious hatred ; but Jesus requires love which, 
like the love of God, regards no difference of faith. It was 
not too much to say that hitherto the Israelite had been com- 
pelled to regard it as a stern and sacred duty towards his god 
to hate his enemy, — not, of course, his personal enenry, 
whom he was bound to treat kindty, 1 but the enemy of his 
people and his religion. In recent times the Scribes had done 
their best to impress this duty in still sharper forms upon the 
people. Indeed, the whole of the Old Testament, with a very 
few exceptions,' 2 breathes a spirit of love to fellow-countrymen 
and fellow-believers (neighbors), 3 but of hatred and ven- 
geance against the heathen (or enemies) . This hatred was 
not only allowed but required of all right-thinking people. 4 

1 Exodus xxiii. 4, 5; Proverbs xxv. 21. 

2 Ruth and Jonah. See vol. ii. chap. xix. p. 520. a Leviticus xix. 17, 18. 
4 Psalra cxxxix. 21, 22; compare e.g. Deuteronomy vii. 2; Jeremiah xlvi. 

10; Psalm cxxxvii. 7-9 ; Nehemiah xiii. 28, 29, et seq. ; and vol. ii. chap. xxix. 
p. 308. 



23G JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 

Jesus, on the other hand, was not content with such a self- 
conquest or such a degree of moral culture as ma} T be needed 
to love a mere personal enemy. He knew the danger of a 
religious man feeling justified in hating, or even bound to 
hate, those whose enmity he had incurred for God's sake ; 
and so he insists that national and religious hate must never 
be regarded as a demand of faith, or as praiseworthy zeal for 
God, but that his disciple must imitate the divine example, 
and love those that hate God, — love the idolatrous and the 
unrighteous with a love so deep and strong that he must needs 
pray for the very men that are persecuting his people and his 
faith ! For the heathen, for the hated Romans, for the wor- 
shippers of demons, for the haugMy oppressors, he mustpra}' 
for very love ! In the parable of the Good Samaritan we have 
a picture of such love ; or rather we are shown how humanity 
overthrows the walls of separation which tradition, descent, 
and dogmatic faith have raised, and makes a neighbor of the 
national and religious foe. 1 

On what did Jesus base his high command? "As a man 
is, so is his god ; " but again, "Asa man believes his god to 
be, so does he conceive of his duty." The God of Jesus was 
not the God of the Old Testament. Jesus had felt in his heart 
what he saw reflected in the impartial bounty of Nature ; as 
rain and sunshine moistened and fostered the land of the 
wicked and the good, of the heathen and the Jew alike, so 
had he felt in his heart that God's love extended, unrestrained 
and impartial, without distinction and without exception, to 
all his creatures. 

" Be perfect, therefore, as } r our heavenly Father is per- 
fect ! " 

Perfect in love as bearing the image of God, as followers 
of him, as his own sons and daughters ! This is a far other 
and far higher command than the old one : "Be holy, for I, 
Yahweh, your god, am holy ! " For this command — the com- 
plete and true epitome of the Law and the whole religion of 
Israel — was confined to Israel alone; and, moreover, true 
perfection consists in love rather than holiness. The com- 
mand of Jesus, then, is higher, — and yet it is the same. For 
the saying of Jesus brings out what was implied in the old 
command, — applies it without reserve, and for the first time 
realizes it. 

That saying is his eternal glory. We regard it as the 
highest truth that ever passed the lips of man. It is the 

1 Luke x. 29-37. See also chap. xxiv. p. 292 of this volume. 



JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 231 

great all-comprehending truth. The mere fact that Testis 
uttered it would not in itself be so great a glory to him had 
he not first exacted from himself what he now demanded of 
his disciples. Nor did he leave it as an abstract principle ; 
but he applied it unconditionally to the various relations and 
circumstances of life. In his own conscience he read the 
commandment to be perfect after the highest t} T pe of perfec 
tion, and in his life he fulfilled it. 

These words give the death-blow to human pride. With 
such a calling how can we speak of merit, of self-satisfac- 
tion, of reward? Such thoughts were the canker of Jewish 
piet} T ; but liston how Jesus would replace them : 1 " Which 
of 3 t ou that has a slave at the plough or in the pasture-land will 
say to him when he comes home from the field, ' Come quick 
and lie down with me at table ! ' Surety he would rather say, 
' Get my meal ready, and wait upon me, and when I have done, 
}-ou may have something to eat and drink 3 T ourself.' And 
does he thank the slave for doing as he was told? Even so, 
when 3 t ou have done all that is commanded you, you ought 
to say, ' We are unworthy servants, we have but done what 
we were bound to do.'" Such is the natural expression of 
the deep humility roused by the calling to be perfect, even as 
the heavenly Father is perfect. 

And yet how these same words exalt us ! What noble 
powers, what lofty worth, must that being have who can 
make such a demand of himself; who can chnib up to such a 
destiny ! It is man's patent of nobility, the proof of the true 
divinity of his nature ! 

Now that we have come to the end of our account of the 
attitude that Jesus took up towards the religion of his people, 
let us glance back over the ground we have traversed. 

The Gospels never mention that Jesus offered a feast or 
thank-offering, or made a vow, a pilgrimage to the temple, 
or an offering of purification to remove any ceremonial un- 
cleanness. But our accounts are so imperfect that we have 
purposely abstained from drawing any inferences from a fact 
that may after all be accidental. 

Our conclusions may be summed up in the celebrated 
words from the Sermon on the Mount : ' ' Think not that I 
am come to destro} T the Law or the Prophets ; I am not come 
to destroy, but to fulfil." This saj'ing is generally chosen as 
the starting point for an examination of the attitude taken up 
i Luke xvii. 7-10. 



232 JESUS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 

b} r Jesus with regard to the religion of his people. We have 
not made such a use of it, though we have ahead}' referred 
to and explained it ; * for in itself it is too ambiguous to give 
us much light, and it is only in connection with the five con- 
trasts that its meaning becomes clear. Besides, it is rather 
doubtful whether the saying is genuine. For the words 
"Think not" imply that there were some of his followers 
who supposed that he did intend to destro} 7 the Law and he 
Prophets, — that is to sa} T , to reject the divine revelation ut- 
terly, and sweep awa}* the whole religion of Israel ; and we 
can hardly believe that this was the case. The saying can 
only be defended as authentic on the supposition that it was 
uttered by Jesus in answer to the accusations of his enemies, 
towards the close of his life. But whether authentic or not, 
it exactly describes the position of Jesus with regard to the 
Law and the Prophets. 

And now we have the key in our hands to reconcile the 
contradictions which we began our last chapter b) T enumerat- 
ing. Since Jesus had few points of sympathy and many 
points of conflict and hostility with the piety of his contem- 
poraries, it is eas\ T to understand his being put to death as a 
heretic ; for his new principle of life struck at the very root 
of Israel's religion. But inasmuch as he was himself an 
Israelite heart and soul ; inasmuch as he appealed to his 
great predecessors, believed himself to be simply bringing out 
the true spirit of the Law and the Prophets, abolished no 
religious forms, never gave a dogmatic form to his principles, 
and still less worked them out into a doctrinal system, — we 
can almost understand how his very Apostles might after- 
wards, under a combination of unfavorable circumstances, 
succumb to Jewish orthodoxy, and how Paul might suppose 
that Jesus, born under the Law, had suppressed all self-com- 
placent parade of liberty, and had become a servant of the 
circumcision. 2 And finally, the result of the work of Jesus, 
when once his principles had taken shape, might easily be to 
call a new religion into life. All this will come out clearly 
as we go along, in the light of the examination we have just 
concluded. 

About a century after the death of Jesus, a profound 
writer, one of the loftiest spirits of Christian antiquity, gave 
the following emblematic description of his work : 3 — 

Jesus (the word become flesh) was invited with his friends 

1 See pp. 225 ff. ; pp. 220, 221, 230. 

2 Galatians iv. 4; Romans xv. 3, 8. 8 John ii. 1-11, 



JESOS AND THE RELIGION OF HIS PEOPLE. 233 

to the great wedding feast (the kingdom of God at its com- 
mencement) which the heavenly bridegroom (God) had pre- 
pared for his guests (the sons of Israel) . But the joy of the 
festival was marred by the absence of that wine of the spirit 
which had flowed in the days of the prophets. There was 
nothing but the water of religions forms left now ! So the 
mother of Jesns (the Israelite communitj- of God) lamented 
the* defect to her great son. At the time he put her appeal 
aside ; but she, knowing what to expect from him, urged the 
attendants to pa}' strict attention to his words. And ere 
long he told them to fill the six great vessels of stone (that 
stood there to meet the requirements of Levitical purity) up 
to the brim with water, and then to draw it off and take it to 
the steward. The water was turned into wine ! Instead of 
forms he gave the spirit ; for life according to the Law he 
substituted that free love of God which is the life of the 
spirit. And not only did he cause this spiritual life that had 
dried up and died to flow forth in inexhaustible abundance, 
but he made it so much nobler than it had been in the old 
da}'S of the prophets that the steward, who knew not whence 
this new wine came, expressed his surprise to the bridegroom 
that he had set the poorer wine before them first and had 
kept back this noble vintage till the end. The joy of the 
wedding feast was now secure ; the kingdom of God would 
win its way ; the future was assured ! Water was turned 
into wine ; the symbols of the old dispensation were facts 
under the new ; the formal religion of the Law was super- 
seded by the spiritual religion, by the living piety of love ! 
This was the first great sign that Jesus gave, the revelation 
of his divine glory. Henceforth his true disciples believed 
in him. 



234 THE PUOPHET IN HIS NATIVE PLACE. 



Chapter XVIII. 

THE PROPHET IN HIS NATIVE PLACE. 

I.uke IV. 16-30 ; Matthew XIII. 54-58 ; Mark III. 20, 21, 31-35,1 

IT is Saturday morning, and the sun is shining brightly on 
the houses of the lovely Nazareth, nestling among their 
vines and olive trees. The people of the place, in scattered 
groups, are turning their steps to the synagogue at the city 
gate. It is even fuller than usual to day, for the report has 
alread} T spread among the villagers that their former towns- 
man, Jesus the son of Joseph, who has been so much talked 
about of late, is at last going to speak in his own city for 
once ! 

Let us go in. The appointed section of the Law has been 
read, and a passage from the Prophets is to follow. And now 
Jesus, upon whom all thoughts are fixed, rises from his place 
to signify his wish to read. The attendant takes a roll from 
the chest and gives it him. It is the book of Isaiah. It opens 
at that consoling prophecy of the mission and the work of the 
servant of Yahweh, and Jesus reads aloud. As the well- 
known words drop from his lips, they seem to gain a special 
power and a deeper meaning: "The spirit of the Lord is 
upon me, for He has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the 
poor ; He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and 
sight to the blind ; to rescue them that are bruised ; to preach 
a blessed year of the Lord." . . . And here he stopped, 
for he could not follow the prophet who addressed the cap- 
tives in Babylon any further ; he could not follow him in 
describing the time when Yahweh should make manifest his 
love to his people, as '* the day of vengeance of our God." 2 

Then he rolled up the book, gave it back to the attendant, 
and, while perfect silence and strained attention reigned in the 
synagogue, sat down to speak about the passage he had read : 
"• To-day this prophecy is fulfilled in your ears." Does Jesus 
mean to say that he is the servant of the Lord, the prophet 
sent by God to fulfil these glorious promises of the Messianic 
age? He does ! Only hear how he dwells upon his mission 

1 Mark vi.1-6; Matthew xii. 46-50; Luke viii. 19-21. 

2 Jsaiah Ixi. 1, 2. See also vol. ii. chap. xii. p. 435 



THE PROPHET IN HIS NATIVE PLACE. 235 

and the task of his life, upon his expectations and his divine 
certainty that they are not vain, upon himself and all that he 
has gone through ! — for here, in his native city, he cannot help 
speaking of things that he passes over in silence elsewhere ; 
upon the blessings of the great deliverance that is drawing 
near. 

He ceases, and a murmur of approval rises on every side. 
There is but one thought expressed in everj- eye and upon 
ever}' face : u How wonderful ! How beautiful ! " But this and 
all other impressions are lost the next moment in sheer amaze- 
ment ! Who would ever have expected this of him ? And 
see, the people are all bending their heads together and 
whispering, " Surely this can't be Joseph's son! How is it 
possible ? " 

And is this all that his former fellow- townsmen have to say 
to the prophet's message ? — not a single question ? not a single 
vow? not a single cry of sacred inspiration or of fervent 
thanksgiving to God from end to end of the synagogue? 
Dull of heart, superficial and unbelieving, they could not un- 
derstand him. He begins again, but now there is a sternness 
in his voice that was not there before. " No doubt you will 
remind me of the proverb, ' Ptrvsician, heal thyself! Before 
3'ou look after others, look after } r our own authority as a pro- 
phet here ! We hear that you have done winders in Caper- 
naum, do as much here in your own city ! ' " Then, after a 
moment's silence, he adds, to show that he was prepared for 
such a reception : "I tell you, a prophet is never honored in 
his native place. Be assured that in Elijah's days, when there 
was a drought for three years and a half, and a fearful uni- 
versal famine, there were many poor widows in Israel ; yet 
Elijah was not sent to one of them, but to a heathen widow 
at Sarepta, near Sidon. And in the time of the prophet 
Elisha there were lepers enough in Israel ; yet not one of 
them, but only Naaman the Syrian, was cleansed." 

Fierce cries and protests interrupt him, and he can say no 
more. Is that the way of prophets, then? — to neglect their 
own townspeople and countiymen for strangers? What in- 
tolerable arrogance ! Indignation seizes the whole assembly, 
and they are resolved to a man not to let such things be 
said with impunity. They start from their seats, rush upon 
Jesus, and fill the place with tumult and confusion. u Drive 
him out of the city!" "Hurl him from the cliff!" they 
shriek ; and the fierce rabble drags him through the city gate, 
and up the mountain, to the top of an almost perpendicular 



2o6 THE PROPHET IN HIS NATIVE PLACE. 

precipice, intending to cast him headlong down. But he 
passes calmly through the raging crowd as though they had 
been suddenly struck blind, and departs from the unbelieving 
cit}' of his birth. 

However far from credible this story in its present form 
may be, it is certainty remarkably clear and graphic. Nor is 
this its only merit. It has great value as exemplifying one 
of the methods of teaching adopted b} T Jesus. And again, all 
the sayings it attributes to him bear the stamp of authenticity. 
In the first place/ as to the text of his discourse, we know 
from other sources 1 that he had a great admiration for the 
book of Isaiah, and that in the servant of Yahweh especially 
he recognized his own image, or rather an indication of his 
own work. Again, Luke can hardly have invented the fact 
that Jesus was taunted with the proverb, "Physician, heal 
thyself ! " for he obviously misunderstandsits application him- 
self, and therefore puts a false interpretation of it into the 
mouth of Jesus. In its true sense it is so thoroughly natural 
on the lips of the Nazarenes ! Though they could not point 
to the smallest imperfection in the character of Jesus, yet they 
muttered, " Let him look nearer home before beginning to 
treat us as sick men that need his help ! He seems to think 
there is no room for improvement in himself! " It is just the 
way of shallow natures, when stirred to envy and malice, be- 
cause a man whom they regarded as simply one of themselves 
has shot far, far above them ! Lastly, the citation of the ex- 
amples set by Elijah and Elisha is in perfect harmony with the 
use which Jesus made of history, and with his later opinions 
concerning his people. 

But there are many difficulties. This can hardly have been 
the real occasion upon which Jesus reminded his hearers of 
the privileges granted to heathen, for they have no bearing 
on his subject. And Luke is certainly quite wrong in putting 
this visit to Nazareth at the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, 
before his settlement at Capernaum. Indeed, he contradicts 
himself in this. 2 Finally, the concluding scene, with the mur- 
derous and inexplicable fury of the citizens and the miracu- 
lous escape of Jesus, is a pure fiction. But the mistake is 
made on purpose, and the fiction has a meaning. The Evan- 
gelist wished to give a single typical sketch of the reception 
Jesus met with at the hands of his people and of his rejection 
by the men of his own country, which proved such a bless- 

1 See, for example, pp. 94, 197, 210, et seq. 

2 Compare Luke iv. 23 with verse 31. 



THE PROPHET IN HIS NATIVE PLACE. 237 

ing to the heathen. The scene which thus foreshadowed the 
future was naturally placed at the beginning of the career of 
Jesus. The simple and trustworthy tradition which is still 
preserved by Matthew and Mark of the reception given to 
Jesus by his former townsmen lent itself admirably to the 
purpose of Luke, and accordingly he adopted it with such 
additions and modifications as his special object suggested. 

Let us now turn to the genuine historical account, just 
alluded to, of the appearance of Jesus in his native place. 
We gain some such idea of what took place as follows : — 

When he had made a deep impression at Capernaum and 
elsewhere, and had labored for some time, especially in the 
land of Gennesareth, Jesus determined to visit Nazareth 
and preach the kingdom of God there also. We can under- 
stand why he long deferred his intention, and shrank from 
carrying it out even now. He did not disguise the fact that 
his native place promised him but small success ; and there, 
of all places, whore his own relatives and fellow-townsmen 
were concerned, failure would be most painful. But these 
forebodings must not hold him back. Now that he had es- 
tablished his fame as a prophet or teacher of the people 
elsewhere, he must make the attempt. He could no longer 
hold himself guiltless, if the men of his native city did not 
hear the glad tidings of the kingdom of God. 

So he extended one of his journeys with the Twelve bej T ond 
the usual limits. He left the shores of the lake at Magdala, 
turned inland by Beth-Arbeel and the Horns of Chattin, passed 
Tabor on his left hand, and so reached the little cny in which 
he had passed his childhood, his 3 T outh, and indeed all his life 
till within the last few months. 1 What conflicting emotions 
came over him when he saw once more the familiar scenes of 
his work and play, his contemplation, and his praj'er ! What 
a change had taken place in this short time, not in the place 
or the people, indeed, but in himself! How would he fare 
amidst them now? 

Of course he went to his mother's house, and probably 
sta}'ed there several days. He had never been there since he 
began his work; and now, alas! he found not what he had 
longed for so fervently. He found no heart open to receive 
his gospel. The very fact that it was his gospel was an in- 
superable obstacle to it. Not that his mother, his brothers 
and sisters, married or single, and his other relatives who 

1 See the plan in Map V. 



238 THE PROPHET IN HIS NATIVE PLACE. 

lived at Nazareth ever thought of withdrawing their affection 
and esteem from him ; bat the}* expressed their surprise at 
his assuming the prophetic function, they did not conceal 
their disapproval of his actions, they showed no s} T mpathy 
when he spoke of his mission ; in short, they gave him a 
thousand proofs that they did not understand him. They 
were far too much accustomed to him, had too often seen 
him go in and out, seen him work and rest, eat and drink, to 
be able to look on him as a prophet. The same blindness 
which had prevented them from expecting any thing from 
him before, prevented their believing in him now. Perhaps, 
too, some of them, especially so strict a Jew as James for 
instance, could hardly brook his free opinions and mode of 
life. So he met with no appreciation, no enthusiasm, no faith ; 
and such faint hopes as he had ever entertained were dashed 
to the ground. 

He felt that this grievous disappointment at home was but 
a sample of what he might expect from his townspeople in 
general. When the Sabbath broke, he went to the synagogue 
— with what feelings we may partly guess. For twenty, per- 
haps thirty, years in succession he had gone there diligently, 
week by week, to receive instruction in the Scripture ; and 
now he came with the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets 
in his heart and upon his lips. Must it, could it, be in vain? 
He preached with all his constraining beaut}?- and power, and 
all who heard were filled with amazement when he ceased. 
" How comes he" said they, " by all this wisdom and power? 
Is he not Joseph the carpenter's son, whose mother Mar} T is 
still living, and whose brothers James and Joseph and Simon 
and Judas are settled here in the town, and all his sisters 
too ? Where should he get this wisdom from ? " And there- 
upon one was vexed as if he had been injured, and another 
was full of contempt. But Jesus was prepared for his recep- 
tion, and simply said, " A prophet is honored everywhere 
except in his native city, and b} 7 his own relatives, and in his 
own home ! " He could do nothing ; or, as the Evangelists 
express it, intending the words to be taken literally: "He 
healed but very few T sick people there. He could not do more, 
because of their unbelief. Then he went and preached in the 
surrounding places." The Nazarenes did but furnish an ex- 
ample of the common want of insight which never can pierce 
below the surface of things. They knew the prophet's origin, 
and of course that origin failed to explain how there could be 
any tiling remarkable in him ; and their superficial prejudices 



THE PROPHET IN HIS NATIVE PLACE. 239 

prevented them from believing in any thing they could not 
account for. As for originality and the summons from on 
high, they had no conception of it, — at least not in the case 
of one whom they had known as a little child, whom the}^ had 
seen as he grew up learning his lessons or playing, and then 
taking to his trade and executing orders. How could he be 
a prophet, and the herald of the kingdom of God? No, no ! 
they knew who he was and were not to be imposed upon. 
And to this da} T the ordinary run of mankind judge by the 
same kind of purely accidental circumstance. No height 
of moral grandeur will convince them that those with whom 
they are familiar are &ny thing but very ordinary sort of 
people. 

Jesus, as we have seen, complained not only of his fellow- 
townsmen, but also of the members of his own family. Did 
a definite breach take place before he left Nazareth? All 
we know is that the natural affection, the ties of kindred, 
remained unbroken ; but his relatives' want of sympatlry with 
him in his highest and holiest life, their want of faith in his 
mission and his preaching, caused a sense of alienation to 
spring up, and made him feel that a chasm yawned between 
himself and them. Sufficient evidence of this appears soon 
afterwards. Jesus had returned to Capernaum and was again 
surrounded by a crowd of admiring disciples and dogged by 
suspicious observers. He was speaking in his own house, 
and was surrounded by so many hearers that it was impossi- 
ble for an} T one outside to approach him, when he was dis- 
turbed by a flutter among his hearers, many of whom looked 
towards the door. Then some one said, "Master! your 
mother and your brothers are there outside, and wish to speak 
to 3*011. " What could have made them come ? It can have 
been nothing but anxious affection for the son or brother 
they sought. In those clays such an expedition — one long, 
or two short, days' journey — was not undertaken without 
some weighty reason. Mark declares that the}* had heard of 
Jesus being so constantly engaged in teaching or in conver- 
sation with those who came to him that he did not even al- 
low himself time for meals ; and says that upon this they set 
out to get hold of him and bring hirn back to Nazareth, hop- 
ing that in the family circle, under the old roof, he might quiet 
down a little and come to himself; for they said, " He is be- 
side himself ! " Did their misunderstanding of him really go 
so far? Matthew does not mention this ; and we are left in 



240 THE PROPHET IN HIS NATIVE PLACE. 

doubt whether it was he who omitted it as too shocking to 
record, or Mark who inserted it. In the latter case it may 
have been suggested by an accusation afterwards urged against 
Paul. 1 At any rate, Jesus himself bears unanswerable testi- 
mony to the fact that however praiseworth}' and affectionate 
their motive ma}' have seemed at first sight it was not the 
true motive of interest in his work ; and they came not to help 
but to thwart him. When he heard that they were there, and 
that seeing no chance of gaining access to him they were 
anxious that he should come out to them, he refused to com- 
ply. Nay, his answer gave an undisguised expression to the 
feeling of deep sadness and the sense of pain which the words 
" your mother and your brothers " had caused him. "Who 
are my mother and brothers?" he cried. And then, looking 
round with deep affection and stretching out his hand over 
the disciples that sat about him, he added, "These are my 
mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my 
heavenly Father, he is my brother and sister and mother." 

The first two Gospels place this occurrence earlier than the 
visit to Nazareth and the preaching there ; but we have fol- 
lowed the reverse order, for such conduct on the part of Je- 
sus towards the members of his famil}' would be inexplicable 
had he not just before been in communication with them, and 
experienced their inability to comprehend his work and their 
desire to hinder it. And again, if he visited his native place 
with even a faint hope of success, it must almost certainly 
have been before this breach with his own relatives. The 
order of the two events, however, is of little consequence. 
They are certainty both of them true ; and the Master's two 
sayings as to the fate of a prophet in his native place, and 
as to his spiritual kin, are unquestionably genuine. The lat- 
ter, with its uncompromising exposure of the deficiencies of 
those he loved so dearly, must have given him intense pain 
when he uttered it. Doubtless he thanked God that friends 
who had devoted their lives without reserve to the kingdom 
of God had filled the places near him which his mother and 
his brothers had left empty, and had given him that support 
and help which he had sought at home in vain ; but, for all 
that, it must have been unspeakably distressing to him to 
push his dearest relatives still further away from him. But 
who shall say with what tears and entreaties the}' had alreadj' 
urged him to forsake his work, and warned him against its 
continuance? He had resisted them. He had silenced the 

1 2 Corinthians v. 13; compare Mark iii. 22, 30. 



RECEPTION OF JESUS BY THE PHAEISEES. 241 

voice of natural affection by the voice of duty, by the voice 
of God ; and, though the love of his mother and his brothers 
was at stake, he could not be shaken. 

The faith of so many disciples might soothe, but could not 
heal, the wound. And especially his mother's want of that 
sympathy which would have been more precious from her than 
from any other creature must have given him the deepest 
pain. . . . Once, 1 when he had been uttering words to the 
people that glowed with sacred power, a woman in the crowd, 
doubtless herself a mother, could contain her emotion no 
longer, and cried aloud, " Blessed is the body that bore you 
and the breast that gave you suck ! " There was deep and 
natural feeling in the woman's cry ; but Jesus wished for no 
panegyric, and at once recalled her attention from himself to 
her own wants and her own calling. At the same time, we 
can see that the exclamation had touched a tender string in 
his heart. He knew too well that kinship of spirit is not 
always fostered by kinship of flesh. "Not so ! " he an- 
swered; "but blessed are they who receive the word of 
God and do it ! " 

Such was the reception from his relatives and his former 
fellow r - townsmen which Jesus, with his fine perceptions and 
deep need of sympathy, had to encounter. 



Chapter XIX. 

THE RECEPTION OF JESUS BY THE PHARISEES. 

Luke XIV. 1, 7-15, XV. 1, 2, 11-32, XVIII. 9-14, VII. 31-35. 2 

WE have alread}* seen Jesus on several occasions in com- 
pan} T with the Pharisees, and have received no very 
pleasant impression of their intercourse with each other. To 
avoid misconception, therefore, we will enter upon a more 
special examination of the treatment Jesus experienced from 
the Pharisees. The attitude they assumed to him was of ex- 
treme importance ; for not onfy had they a great number of 
avowed supporters, but they may be regarded as the acknowl- 
edged leaders of the religious life of the da}'. But it is very 
difficult to arrive at certainty on this subject, for our Evan« 
1 Luke xi. 27, 28. 2 Matthew xi. 16-19. 

VOL. III. 11 



242 RECEPTION OF JESUS BY THE PHARISEES. 

gelists were strongly prejudiced against the Pharisees on ac- 
count of the final issue of their relations to Jesus, and they 
do not distinguish sufficiently between different times and 
circumstances. Again, the Pharisees were not so compactly 
organized a party as to form the same opinion of Jesus and 
adopt the same line of conduct towards him in every case. 
On the contrary, the} T differed from each other widely in 
these respects. 

The first point to notice is, that we find the Pharisees in 
compan3 T with Jesus at a ver} T early period of his ministry, 
and that they never withdrew from him to the end of his life. 
Whether friendly or hostile, they did at least feel some inter- 
est in him and in his preaching. Pie had never to complain 
of indifference on their part. 

It was far otherwise with the rival school. The Sadducees 
paid little or no attention to Jesus. What did it matter to 
them that a certain Galilaean rabbi had appeared and taught ? 
The whole thing was beneath their notice, until the fancied 
danger of some seditious tumult directed their attention to 
him, and made them wish to put him out of the way. Once 
or twice, even before the closing period of his life, our au- 
thorities mention the Sadducees, and also the political party 
of Herodians ; but this appears to be due to an unintentional 
confusion. 1 

As to the third school of Jewish religion, that of the Es- 
senes, there is no ground for supposing that Jesus ever had 
any connection with it. Indeed, the Essenes are not once 
mentioned in the Gospels ; and if the fame of Jesus ever 
reached them, it failed to draw them from their solitude. 
Important inferences have sometimes been drawn from the 
fact that the Essenes appear to resemble Jesus in their dis- 
satisfaction with the righteousness of the Pharisees, in their 
rejection of animal sacrifices, in remaining unmarried, and in 
forbidding oaths. 2 But these points of agreement are ac- 
cidental ; for Jesus and the Essenes started from different 
principles, and in their main conceptions were diametrically 
opposed to each other. At any rate, if Jesus ever met them 
at all, it must have been before the beginning of his public 
career, 8 for he never came into contact with them afterwards. 



1 Matthew xvi. 1, 6, 11, 12 (more correctly given m Matthew xii. 38 ; Mark 
viii. 11; Luke xii. 1); Mark iii. 6, viii. 15 (more correctly in Matthew xii. 14 
Luke xii. 1). 

2 Compare Matthew v. 20, 23, 24, 33-37, xix. 12. 
» See p. 100. 



RECEPTION OP JESUS BY THE PHARISEES. 243 

The connection of Christ ianitj" and Essenism dates only from 
the Apostolic age. 1 

On the other hand, Jesns and the Pharisees were in constant 
communication. They approached each other with good- will, 
but with caution and reserve. The} T were disposed to respect 
one another, but held their judgment suspended, and watched 
each other narrowly. The Pharisees, with their zeal for re- 
ligion, and their keen interest in eveiy religious phenomenon 
of the day, soon fixed their attention on the new preacher of 
Nazareth. In his main purpose, his pursuit of righteousness 
and his longing for the kingdom of God, they were in perfect 
sympathy with him ; indeed, he was their disciple. 2 And if 
in spite of this they failed to win him over to their party, 
it certainly was not because they did not care to have him. 
They repeatedly invited him to their houses, carefully weighed 
his words and deeds, and were not disposed as yet absolutely 
to condemn his pretensions as a prophet, though still less pre- 
pared to admit them, without some very sufficient reason. 8 
It is true that the very man who asked him to dinner for the 
sake of conversing with him, and considered his claim to the 
prophetic dignit}^ 'worthy of investigation, might at the same 
time treat him with neglect, might look upon him with sus- 
picion, and might be prepared to reject him at a moment's 
notice ; 4 but still we ma}^ say that as a general rule the Phar- 
isees listened to him diligently, eagerly availed themselves of 
ever} T opportunit} T of speaking to him, and sought his com- 
pany at least, if not his friendship. If they freely criticised his 
conduct, or that of his disciples, it was no sign of hostility, but 
was the expression of natural surprise, or a necessaiy hint for 
his future guidance, — in any case a mark of interest. Nay, to 
the very last some of them at least maintained their friendly 
relation with him, at any rate externally ; 5 and even when 
their resentment had reached its climax, they still observed 
the outward forms of respect and good- will. 6 

Jesus, on his side, had a sincere regard for them. Though 
their virtue was of a frigid t}-pe that could not fail to offend 
him ; though he must have soon perceived their formalit} 1 - and 
worship of the letter ; though he knew that their style of piety 
was in the utmost danger of resting content with externals, 
and then addressing itself to the eyes of men, — yet he honored 
what was honorable in them, and hoped to win them over to 

1 See p. 17, chaps, vi. p. 544, and ix. p. 595. 2 gee p. 94. 

8 Matthew xii. ;J8. 4 See pp. 205 ft'. ; compare Luke xi. 38, xiv. 1. 

6 Luke xiii. 31, xvii. 20. « Matthew xxii. 1G, 36. 



244 RECEPTION OP JESUS BY THE PHARISEES. 

his own principles of life. If he could do so, the respect 
which they enjoyed would make them powerful allies in the 
good cause. In comparison with the sinners, then, he called 
them ' ' sound " and righteous ; for most of them were men of 
irreproachable life, and some were really patterns of virtue 
and piety. He confessed that they had reached a higher stage 
of righteousness than anj" other of his fellow-countrymen. 
But he added that such righteousness was not enough for a 
citizen of the kingdom of God, and that this irreproachable 
ii^e lacked the true principle of humilhrv and love. He en- 
deavored to influence their lives and convince them of their 
errors, and though he did not feel that his special mission was 
to them, yet he never shrank from intercourse with them, or 
failed to meet their advances. 

Luke is our only authority for a series of invitations to 
dinner which various Pharisees gave to Jesus, and which he 
accepted. On these occasions the Evangelist represents sun- 
dry conversations, which he gives us, as having taken place. 
One of these scenes we have already considered. 1 On another 
occasion, sa} T s the Evangelist, Jesus had been asked to dine 
by a certain Pharisee, and as soon as he arrived he lay down 
at table without having washed. Upon this his host showed 
signs of great surprise, and Jesus met him with a crushing 
rebuke. But this scene was imagined by Luke in order to 
furnish an occasion for a discourse, which we shall find a more 
suitable opportune of giving presently.' 2 A third discourse, 
the contents of which suggest that it was uttered at table, is^ 
said to have been due to the following circumstance : Jesus 
had entered the house of a certain " chief of the Pharisees" 
on a Sabbath day, to dine with him, and he noticed that all 
the guests picked the best places for themselves without wait- 
ing for a special invitation. The arrangement of the couches 
at meals among ancient peoples made the difference between 
the higher and lower places much more conspicuous than it is 
with us ; and the place of honor was coveted with propor- 
tionate eagerness. So Jesus rebuked the guests, and said : 
"When you are asked to a wedding feast you should not 
choose the best place, for it may be that some more distin- 
guished guest has been invited, and that the host will come to 
you and say, ' Make room for my guest here ! ' Then you would 
be filled with shame, and would go to the humblest place you 
could find. So when you are asked to a meal an}-where, take 

i See pp. 206, 207. 

2 Luke xi. 37 ff. ; compare Matthew xxiii. See chap. xxxi. p. 382. 



RECEPTION OF JESTJS BY THE PHARISEES. 245 

the lowest place ; and then perhaps your host will come to you 
and sa} T , ' Friend, go up higher ! ' and } T ou will be honored 
in the sight of all the guests. For he who exalts himself shall 
be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted." 
He had a lesson also for his host : " When you give a dinner 
or supper, do not invite your friends or brothers, your rela- 
tives or wealthy neighbors, for they ma}' very likely invite you, 
and so return the favor. But ask the poor, the needy, the 
blind, the crippled. They cannot make any return, and that 
will bring a blessing on } r ou ; for at the resurrection of the 
just 3 T ou will have your reward." The last words very natu- 
rally reminded one of the guests of the great wedding feast to 
come ; and, perhaps on purpose to draw some answer from 
Jesus, he exclaimed, " Blessed are the} 7 who shall be admitted 
to lie down to meat in the kingdom of God !" Upon this 
Jesus uttered the parable of the great supper, which we shall 
consider on another occasion. 1 

We ma}' safely attribute much of this scene to Luke himself, 
who is the least trustworthy of the three Evangelists. For 
instance, the Pharisees had not any " chiefs ; " and we may 
well doubt whether these discourses of Jesus are in their true 
places, and whether good breeding would not have prevented 
their being uttered on such an occasion. Finally, the com- 
mendation of the poor and helpless perhaps betrays the Ebi- 
onite proclivities of one of Luke's authorities. The expression 
is elsewhere used for sinners. 2 But this is of minor con 
sequence. 

We return to the relations of Jesus and the Pharisees. 

It seems that the first cause of offence was the Master's 
conduct towards sinners. It shocked and offended the Phar- 
isees so much, just because of the respect they entertained 
and the interest they felt in him. Perhaps some of them might 
have formally joined him, had not such offensive conduct on 
his part made it impossible. It was indeed bringing religion 
into contempt, giving that which was holy to the dogs, fling- 
ing pearls before swine, defiling the name of the Lord, when 
one whom many held to be a prophet, one who was undoubt- 
edly a wonderful teacher, actually threw himself away upon 
the godless and abandoned class of unclean outcasts ! We 
can hear the sound of their indignation in the question they 
addressed to his disciples when he invited Levi to his house. 
We can trace the sense of loathing on Simon's face when 

1 See chap. xxiv. p. 292. 2 Luke xiv. 21. 



246 RECEPTION OF JESUS BY THE PHARISEES. 

Jesus allowed the sinful woman to touch him unrebuked. 
Now Jesus, on his side, never denied or excused the moral 
degradation of these people. He never ascribes any virtue to 
them, or finds any thing to commend in them except their 
penitence. But for the very reason that they were sinners 
thejr stood in need of him ; and m defence of his conduct he 
appealed to the very nature of the case itself, and to the call 
he had experienced in his heart. "Perhaps, too, he intended 
that citation from Hosea, " Mercy, and not sacrifice ! " as an 
appeal to the Pharisees to raise up the despised and abomina- 
ted peoples of the land, rather than congratulate themselves 
on their strict observance of the Law. 1 In vain ! Their re- 
pugnance increased rather than diminished as time went on. 
" He actually touches lepers and such creatures," the3 T would 
say, ' ' and tramples under foot the laws of cleanness which 
distinguish Israel, and mark it off from the heathen." 

"And all the publicans and sinners," we read, "used to 
come and associate with him like friends. And the Phari- 
sees and Scribes murmured at it greatly, and said, ' This man 
receives sinners and eats with them ! ' " 

And now Jesus condemned their pride and want of love in 
stronger terms than he had used before. He chose the form 
of a parable that put God's fatherry love to the repentant sin- 
ner in the strongest light, and threw into the darkest shade 
the cruelty of the rigid devotees of the Law. It is a mas- 
terl}' sketch, and all the figures in it are drawn from life : 

A certain man of substance, living on his own estate, had 
two sons. Once on a time the younger came to him and 
said : ' ' Father, let me have m} T share of the famity posses- 
sions." He could find no peace or satisfaction any more at 
home, and he wanted to see something of the world, to be at 
liberty, to be his own master, and to live after his own fancy. 
Should not his father have dissuaded him from going ? Should 
he not have kept him back by force ? We must remember 
that there was nothing extravagant in the wish itself, for in 
the East the laws of inheritance were strictly regulated ; dis- 
inheriting an elder and preferring a j-onnger son were things 
unknown, and wills were seldom made at all. The eldest 
son succeeded to all his father's rights, and received a double 
share of his possessions. In this case, then, the second son 
might very well be bought out, so to speak, by the pa}mient 
in advance of his third of the family effects. And this is 
what actually happened. The elder son remained at home 
1 See p. 218. 



RECEPTION OF JESUS BY THE PHARISEES. 247 

with his father, henceforth the sole heir and virtual proprie- 
tor of the estate. The 3 r ounger brother, after a few days' 
delay, collected all his possessions, sold whatever he could 
not carry away, left his family and his native place, and went 
and settled in a distant country. 

Here lie soon fell into an abandoned life, and wasted all he 
had. To increase his misery, when all was gone, a great 
famine rose in the country. But for this he might well have 
gained a subsistence, but as it was he began to suffer actual 
hunger. Driven to the utmost straits, at last he entered the 
service of a citizen of the place, who sent him into his fields 
to feed his pigs, — the most degrading occupation which a 
Jew could imagine. And even then he could not satisfy his 
hunger ; but when he drove home the pigs in the evening, 
and the men came with their food, and he saw how greedily 
the} 7 swallowed it, he could not suppress a hungiy longing 
to have his fill even of that ! But of course there was none 
for him. The brutes were of value, and must be well at- 
tended to in such a time of scarcity ; but who could spare a 
thought for the swineherd? At last his overwhelming sense 
of miser}' brought him to repentance. "How many of my 
father's laborers," he said to himself, — " how man}' - of his 
hired laborers, who are not even his own men, — have abun- 
dance of sweet food, while I am here dying of hunger ! I 
will rise up and go to my father, and say to him, ' Father ! 
I have sinned against heaven, and have grieved your very 
soul. I am not wortlry of the name of son. But drive me 
not away ; let me stay with you as a hireling ! ' " His reso- 
lution was made ; and he turned his face homewards. 

What a long and miserable journey ! What conflicting 
thoughts chased each other through his heart ! How would 
his father receive him ? ... At last he saw his old home in 
the distance, and soon perceived that some one was hurrying 
to meet him. It was his father himself, from whose thoughts 
he had never for a moment been absent. His anxious parent 
had seen him from afar ; had recognized him instantly in spite 
of his miserable condition, and now fell upon his neck witli 
pity that no words could utter, and kissed him tenderly. 
Deeply moved, the young man disengaged himself from his 
embrace, fell down upon the ground, and cried: "Father 1 
I have sinned against heaven, and have grieved your very 
soul. I am not worthy of the name of son " — he could 
not say the rest after the reception his father had given him. 
Not a single word of reproach was uttered by the parent, but 



248 RECEPTION OF JESUS BY THE PHARISEES. 

as soon as they reached the house he cried to some of the 
servants who came running out to welcome the wanderer on 
his return : ' ' Bring him a cloak — the best we have — and 
take away these things. Get a bath ready, and dress him, 
and put a gold ring on his finger and sandals on his feet, 
that he ma}^ look like a free-born man and take his place 
with others once again. And do you," he added, turning to 
other servants, "get ready a great feast this very night. 
Kill the fatted calf, and see that singers and all else are pro- 
vided. We may well rejoice and make merry ; for my son 
here was dead, — dead to heaven and to me, — and now he is 
alive again ; he was lost, and is found ! " His commands 
were joyfully and quickly obeyed ; and by evening the full 
tide of festivity had set in. 

Meanwhile the elder son was superintending the work at 
a distant field, so that no one had gone to fetch him. When 
the day's work was over, and he returned to the house, he 
could not imagine what had happened. All was commotion ; 
and the sound of the music and dancing, and the flare of the 
torches greeted his ears and eyes while he was still at a 
distance. For a time he stood outside the house lost in 
amazement, till one of the attendants happened to come out, 
perhaps to fetch something. He called him and asked him 
what it was all about. " Why, your brother has come back," 
said he, " and your father has killed the fatted calf [the 
most important event of the day, perhaps, in the servant's 
eyes] because he has returned safe and sound." That was 
it, indeed? The elder brother turned away in wrath, and 
refused to go into the house. But the father heard of it, and 
came and pressed him kindly to come in. But he replied : 
"Think how many years I have been serving } t ou, without 
ever once disobe3 T ing 3 T our commands, and 3*et 30U never 
rewarded my fidelity and diligence b3 T giving me so much 
as a kid to make a feast for ni3 T friends. But now that this 
son of yours, who wasted your possessions with harlots, has 
come back again, 3 t ou have killed the fatted calf for him ! " 
" Son," said the father gent^, " what is this that 3 t ou have 
said ? You have alwa3 T s stayed with me ; and all that I have 
is yours, for 3 r ou are my only heir. But how could we help 
rejoicing and making merry, — for this your brother was 
dead and is alive again, was lost and is found?" 

This is the best known of all the parables of Jesus ; and it 
deserves to be so, for it is the profoundest and most beauti- 
ful. How true it is ! We recognize at once the publican 



RECEPVION OF JESUS BY THE PHARISEES. 249 

who has left his Father's house, left the service of God and 
communion with him, but has now returned in penitence. 
And in contrast with him stands the Pharisee, still repre- 
sented in the most favorable light, strictly religious and irre- 
proachably moral, but } T et serving G-od as if for hire, — more 
like a slave than a son, proud of his own virtue, without 
love and without generosuy. But though this application is 
obvious enough, and was certainly intended b} T Jesus, yet 
the parable had also a wider scope. Luke, in recording it, 
thought especially of the relations in which heathen and Jew 
stood to each other and to God, and represents Jesus as con- 
demning the contemptuous pride and exclusiveness of the 
Jews. That distant foreign land he takes to mean the out- 
side world that knows not God, — the world of heathendom, 
of which the swine are also a s3 T mbol. The two sons repre- 
sent mankind as the children of God ; and the elder son is 
Israel, the heir of the promise of salvation. It is impossible to 
say whether Luke (or his authorhYy) modified the parable to 
suit this special interpretation, and, if so, how far the altera- 
tions went. But even this application limits the scope of the 
parable unduly. Jesus tells us a histoiy that is as old as hu- 
manit}' itself, and } T et is ever new, — the history of the sinner 
who, though a child of the heavenly Father, does violence 
to his divine nature, and thirsting for a fancied liberty tears 
himself away from God ; nor does God lay fetters on his 
freedom. He dashes on in self-delusion until the sense of 
his miseiy brings him to reflection and repentance. Then 
his deep sense of guilt and his true penitence strengthen him 
to come in deep hurnilhyy and childlike trust and throw him- 
self at the Father's feet. And the Father's love comes forth 
to meet him and welcome him, and to restore him to the 
honor he had lost. So long as sin and penitence fill so great 
a space in the history of human lives, so long will this para- 
ble, the gospel of God's grace, shine upon our souls like the 
morning star ! 

We will say nothing of the impression which such a story 
must have made upon the hearers of Jesus, upon the publi- 
cans, and, above all, upon the Pharisees. We will only ob- 
serve that this is another instance x of the constantly recurring 
contrast between Pharisee and publican which runs through 
the Gospel. The} T are taken as portraits, or rather types, of 
two kinds of men ; and, before we quit the subject of the of- 
i Compare pp. 205-207. 
11* 



250 RECEPTION OF JESUS BY THE PHARISEES. 

fence which Jesus gave to his pious countrymen by his inter- 
course with sinners, we will give one more sketch which 
throws off, in a few bold lines, a life-like presentation of 
these two types of pride and humility. We maj 7 note in 
advance that our custom of kneeling down, closing the eyes, 
and folding the hands in prayer, was unknown to the 
Jews : — 

Two men went up to the temple to pray ; one was a Phari- 
see, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood up and prayed 
thus with himself: "O God! I thank thee that I am not 
like other men, — extortioners, deceivers, adulterers ; or 
even like this publican here. I fast twice in the week, give 
tithes of all my income." . . . And the publican stood at the 
entrance of the forecourt, and dare not so much as raise his 
eyes to heaven ; but, forgetting every thing around him, 
smote his breast in penitence, and cried, " O God! be mer- 
ciful to me, sinner that I am ! " " As those two men," said 
Jesus, "went down the steps of the temple, and each re- 
turned to his home, I tell you, the publican was justified in 
the sight of God rather than the Pharisee." 

The picture is drawn from the life, and without a touch of 
exaggeration. Can we not see those two men, accidentally 
entering the temple-gate together at one of the hours of 
prayer? The one, whose piety is proclaimed by his four 
great tassels and the broad phylacteries (or prayer-bands) 
on his forehead and his arm, 1 turns his steps to the temple, 
because it is more satisfactory to perform religious duties in 
the sanctuary than elsewhere ; the other, because he can bear 
his sinful life no longer, and, in the agony of his soul, knows 
not where to turn but to the Lord. No falsehoods are put 
upon the lips of the Pharisee, nor is the honor due to him 
withheld. The duties on the performance of which he felici- 
tates himself are not the ordinary ones which every respecta- 
ble Jew observed, but the special ones peculiar to him and 
the other members of his school.' 2 Moreover, he is thankful 
to God for his virtue. But what are we to sa} 7 to the self- 
satisfaction of one who can enumerate his merits in his very 
prayers ; can look down with contempt on the world in gen- 
eral, and even on the poor penitent who is praying there 
beside him ! 

We see at once that the concluding words of the parable 
are but a modification of that other saying : u There is more 

1 Compare Matthew xxiii. 5; Numbers xv. 37 ff. ; Deuteronomy vi. 8. 

2 Compare Matthew ix. 14, xxiii. 23. 



RECEPTION OF JESUS BY THE PHARISEES. 251 

joy in heaven over one sinner that repents than over ninety- 
nine just men that need no repentance." Why so? you may 
ask. Because in the heart of that one penitent there is the 
germ of a higher righteousness, of which those devout ob- 
servers of the Law, with their unimpeachable life and char- 
acter, have not even a conception ! Finally, Luke tells us 
triuy enough that this story was aimed not so much at the 
Pharisees themselves as at those among the disciples of Jesus, 
or among the Jews, who were satisfied with themselves and 
despised others. At the close he repeats the warning : "He 
who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles 
himself shall be exalted." 

Let us now return for a moment to the attitude assumed by 
the Pharisees towards Jesus. We have already seen that from 
an early period of his ministry they had had a more serious 
cause of offence, and a heavier charge against him, than that 
he associated with sinners. It was that in case of need, or 
when summoned to a deed of love, he did not shrink from 
violating the Sabbath. 1 We need not dwell on this at pres- 
ent, especially as all the utterances of Jesus on the Law and 
the tradition, which we shall have to consider in the sequel, 
were occasioned b}- the rebukes or the wily questions of the 
Pharisees. We can well understand that the freedom of Jesus 
with regard to the Sabbath must have deepened and widened 
the gulf between him and the Pharisees. Their aversion and 
distress rose still higher, and at length passed into definite 
hostility and positive hatred, when they began to suspect, and 
more than suspect, that he was not only aiming at a goal very 
different from theirs, but cherished purposes and principles 
diametrically opposed to the whole spirit of the Jewish relig- 
ion. Then they began to abominate him from the bottom of 
their souls as a false prophet, a blasphemer, who did not 
even shrink from putting himself in the place of the Lord and 
offering forgiveness to sinners ! But still the}' continued to 
observe the forms of politeness and respect towards him, even 
when he on his side had declared open war, and was striving 
with all his might to counteract their influence and expose 
their inward corruption in all its nakedness. 

But things were far from having reached this point at the 

time of which we are now speaking. Pharisees who really 

thought well of Jesus were not yet, as they subsequently 

became, a rare exception. And Jesus on his side was still 

1 Sec pp. 214-218 



252 RECEPTION OF JESUS BY THE PHARISEES. 

prepared to admit the comparative merits of the Pharisees 
At a later period he would have spoken very differently of 
the elder son, and would by no means have allowed that the 
respectable and religious Jews had never left the Father's 
house or disobeyed his commands. 1 But the Pharisees had 
begun already to be deeply and generally offended b}* the 
friend of sinners. We gather this from Jesus himself, who 
describes, in a kind of parable, the unfavorable reception 
which both he and his predecessor, utterly unlike each other 
as the}' were, had met from the Pharisees, their adherents, 
and those of the people who blindly followed them : — 

"To what shall I liken this generation? They are like 
children who go to pla}- in the market-place, but are too 
sulky and quarrelsome to be pleased with any thing, and 
say : ' We wanted to play at weddings ; you ought to have 
danced. We wanted to play at funerals ; you ought to have 
lamented.' 

-' For John came, living like a recluse, fasting without in- 
termission, and practising every possible austerity; and they 
thought his concluct extravagant, and muttered, ' He is mad ! ' 
The Son of Man came, living like other human beings, end- 
ing the good things of earth without misgiving, and they 
thought him a mere worldling ; ' A glutton and a sot ! ' they 
cried contemptuously ; ' A friend of publicans and sinners ! ' 
But whatever the judgment of these Pharisees and their 
admirers ma}* be, the Wisdom, which sent John and sent me, 
is justified and maintained in her rights and honors by a)l 
her true children." 

Such was the consolation of Jesus when the leaders of 
Israel received him so unfavorably. 

1 See Matthew xxi. 28-31, and chap. xxx. p. 370. 



HOW THE PREACHING OF JESUS WAS RECEIVED. 253 



Chapter XX. 

HOW THE PREACHING OF JESUS WAS RECEIVED BY 

THE MASSES. 

Matthew XI. 1-16, 20-24. 1 

IT was with true perception of the real state of affairs that 
Jesus spoke in one breath of the reception given to him- 
self, and of that which John had met. There was the closest 
connection between the two, and Jesus often recurred to it. 2 
What is true of the Pharisees is equally true of the masses 
of the people. They, too, were to Jesus just what they had 
been to John. Now in considering how far Jesus succeeded 
in bringing home his teaching and his principles to his hear- 
ers, and how far their faith responded to his gospel, we ought, 
perhaps, to lay chief stress upon the reception he experienced 
from the masses ; for it was to them especially that he conse- 
crated his time, his strength, and his affection, and to reach 
their hearts was his one great desire. To this subject, then, 
we will now address ourselves. The direct information we 
possess is scanty, and not altogether trustwortlry ; and we are, 
therefore, doubly pleased to receive from the lips of Jesus him- 
self an account of the impression produced upon the people by 
his predecessor. 

The occasion which led him to speak upon this subject was 
very remarkable. John had been sighing for months in his 
dungeon. What misery this must have been to a man of such 
burning zeal and boundless energy as his ! Must he not even 
have hoped that the Lord, who had sent him to his people, 
would now deliver him from prison ? Meanwhile he was not 
wholly cut off from the world outside. Some, perhaps many, 
of his disciples had free access to him. From them he heard 
that Jesus of Nazareth, whom he had himself baptized, but 
to whom he had probably paid no special regard, had been 
preaching the kingdom of God in Galilee, and had gradually 
excited much attention. If John was accurately informed, we 
may well suppose that his perplexity was great. This Jesus 
had begun to preach after his imprisonment, gave himself out 
as a prophet, performed healings, preached the near approach 

1 Luke vii. 18-30, x. 12-15. 2 Matthew xvii. 12, xxi. 24, 25. 



254 HOW THE PREACHING OF JESUS WAS RECEIVED 

of the kingdom of heaven, and repentance as the necessary 
condition of entrance into it ; and the multitudes streamed to 
hear him. So far all was well ; but the new teacher's mode 
of life and speech was so very far from his own that he knew 
not what to think of him. Pie determined, therefore, to as- 
certain from Jesus himself what opinion he was to form, and 
what hopes he might entertain concerning him. So he sent 
two of his disciples to ask the new teacher in his name, "Are 
you he that was to come, or are we to expect another?" 

They set out on their journey, came to Jesus, and gave him 
their captive Master's message. The answer the} r received 
was expressed in the concise and pregnant language of the 
day : " Go back and say to John in nry name, ' The blind men 
see, and cripples walk ; lepers are cleansed, and deaf men 
hear ; the dead return to life, and the gospel is preached to 
the poor ! ' and . . . blessed are they who are not offended 
by me ! " We recognize at once the metaphorical substitu- 
tion of bodily for spiritual suffering, which was customary with 
Jesus. The description of the younger son in the parable, 
who "was dead and is alive again," has furnished us but 
now with an instance of the analogous use of " death." Nor 
must we overlook the direct reference to several passages in 
the Master's favorite prophet Isaiah, where the redemption 
from Babylon, the repentance of Israel, and the blessedness 
of the golden age are painted in the same or similar colors. 1 
Jesus meant to say, " Tell John what I am doing, and how I 
am succeeding. Tell him that the ' peoples of the land ' and 
the sinners, who were living without God and his command- 
ments, are now being called in and rescued, and the blessed 
promises of the Lord are beginning to be fulfilled ! " The 
only dark side to the picture was the offence which these very 
things gave to the respectable and virtuous classes. " Blessed 
are they," said Jesus in conclusion, "who are not offended, 
as the guides of the people are, by what I do." 

The last words cannot be meant as a warning to John not 
to be shaken in his own fidelity. Nor must we understand 
the list of physical afflictions literally, though perhaps Mat- 
thew and certainly Luke did so, as appears from the additions 
they make. Indeed, both the question and the answer seem 
to have been a good deal tampered with, and their original 
meaning is not easy to divine. The Evangelists evidently 
took it that John asked, " Are you the Messiah?" and testis 

1 Isaiah xxix. 18, xxxv. 5, 6, lxi. 1; compare vol. ii. chap, xi., p. 425: xii 
p. 435. 



BY THE MASSES. 255 

answered, "Yes." But what John expected was the coming 
of Yahweh himself. He said nothing of a Messiah ; 1 and 
even if his expectations in this respect had been modified of 
late, the idea that Jesus, or an}- one like him, was the Mes- 
siah, could not possibly have occurred to him. Lastly, sup- 
posing for a moment that Jesus had already determined to 
take upon himself the task of the Messiah, he had certainly 
not 'yet betrayed the intention to an}- one else, and would 
never have taken this opportunity of doing so. We should 
be more disposed to reject the whole scene as unhistorieal than 
to adopt the opinion of the Evangelists concerning it. But 
the point we have to consider is how far that opinion itself 
has affected the form in which the question and the answer, 
especially the former, have come down to us. 2 It is true that 
the expression " he that was to come" is very vague. It is 
never applied in the Old Testament to the Messiah, and may 
be taken equally well to signify Elijah, for instance, or the 
prophet who was to restore the sacred objects of a former 
time. 3 In Malachi iii. 1, we should refer it to Yahweh him- 
self, but the rabbis understood it to mean Elijah. Nor is it 
ever said that the Messiah himself was to give sight to the 
blind, and so on, though the deliverance from all the spiritual 
evils thus symbolized was certainly to be a part of the blessed- 
ness of the Messianic age. We might therefore suppose, if 
inclined to draw nice distinctions, that this healing would 
precede the founding of the kingdom, and prepare the way for 
it. It seems most probable, therefore, that when John was 
violently interrupted in his work, he began to think that 
Jesus would carry it on and actually perform the function of 
Elijah. His question was, " Are 3-011 the man? Is the king- 
dom of God really close at hand?" And Jesus, perhaps un- 
intentionally, said nothing whatever of himself, but dwelt on 
his work and its results as the positive proof that the glorious 
future was indeed at hand. Such a preparation was itself a 
kind of beginning of the kingdom of heaven ; but that king- 
dom must be established by quiet spiritual regeneration, not 
by an}- violent revolution. Did John understand all this? 
Patience was harder for him to exercise than for any one. 
But his time of trial w-ould soon end. 

Meanwhile, Jesus took this opportunity of speaking of his 
predecessor to the people. The first Evangelist has collec- 
ted all the sayings of Jesus about John with which he was 

» See pp. 102, 109, 110. 2 Compare p. 111. 

8 Compare pp. 49-51, 98, 99 ; Matthew xvii. 10-13 ; John vi. 14. 



256 HOW THE PREACHING OF JESUS WAS RECEIVED 

acquainted, and has strung them together here. He even in- 
cludes the citation from Malachi and the declaration that John 
was the Elijah, which Jesus most certainly did not make until 
some time afterwards, on a very special occasion. 1 When 
the messengers were gone, Matthew tells us, Jesus began as 
follows : 2 "■ What was it you went out into the wilderness to 
see ? — was it to see how the wind shakes the bulrush ? What 
was it then ? — - a man clothed in delicate apparel ? Gorgeous 
robes are worn in princely palaces and not in the wilderness. 
But what was it that you went to see? — a prophet? Yes, I 
tell you, and more than a prophet. [It is he of whom we 
read, ' Behold, I send my messenger before your face, to pre- 
pare the way for .you.'] Verily, of all the children of men, no 
greater one has ever risen than John the Baptist. But the 
least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from 
the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven 
has been besieged, and the violent have striven to take it by 
storm. For all the prophets and the Law uttered their prom- 
ises until John, but with him begins the fulfilment. [And if 
you will receive it as a truth, he is that Elijah who was to 
come.] He that has ears, let him hear ! " 

In asking what results for our special inquiry these particu- 
lars furnish, we need not dwell on the fact that the fame of 
Jesus had penetrated even to John in his prison, or that his 
answer to the messengers evinces a joyful consciousness of 
success. We would rather point to the evidence that the 
multitudes had streamed out into the wilderness to John, 
and that ever since an impetuous demand for the kingdom of 
God had been discernible. 3 Not only must this lively inter- 
est and passionate longing for salvation stand Jesus in good 
stead as John's successor, but it foreshadowed the power 
which he himself might exercise over the people on his own 
account. 

The statements contained in the Gospels as to the un- 
bounded popularity of Jesus give us less real information 
than we should at first be inclined to suppose ; partly because 
they are so vague, partly because many of them are associ- 
ated with the literal acceptation of miraculous stories, and T 
since they rest on such misapprehensions on the part of the 
Evangelists, deserve but little credit. On the other hand, 
they are so unanimous, and there are so many left unchal- 



1 Matthew xvii. 10-13. See chap. xxvi. p. 325. 

2 See pp. 98-100, 104, 110-112, 115. 3 c 



bmpare Luke vii. 29 



BY THE MASSES. 257 

lenged, when evei3 r fair deduction has been made, that it is 
impossible to doubt the main fact to which they testify. 

Almost from the very first the preaching of Jesus created 
a deep impression, which was strengthened still further by 
several cures he performed. Whether his personal appear- 
ance contributed to the result it is impossible now to ascer- 
tain. His audiences were numerous, and his discourses were 
received with rapt attention, and greeted with joyous accla- 
mations at their close. The marked contrast between his 
frank and impressive mode of teaching, his tone of prophetic 
authority, his entrancing eloquence, on the one hand, and the 
narrow, timorous, wearisome style of argument adopted by 
his learned contemporaries on the other, could not fail to 
excite attention. When he interpreted the prophets, he could 
make the dead live for his hearers once more as no other 
could ; and with the fulness of the Holy Spirit in his very 
tones he made the words of these old seers more glorious than 
ever they had been, even upon their own lips, and more con- 
soling than they themselves had ever felt them to be. And 
when he uttered those stories, so full of deep significance, 
taken from the daily life around him, their simplicity was only 
equalled by their depth ; and, while the}' captivated the imagi- 
nation, they stamped themselves indelibly upon the memory. 
In a word, he loved and understood the people, and their 
hearts went out to him. What else could we expect from the 
quickly moved and excitable disposition of the Galilasans? 
When he came to Capernaum, no sooner was it known that 
he was at home than his house and all the space in front of it 
were crowded, and he had no time for rest or refreshment. 
If he walked on the shore of the lake, whole crowds would 
gradually collect about him till he was forced to look for some 
special means of addressing them, or they would not be able 
to hear him. If he crossed the lake, to be alone with his 
friends, ''thousands," as the Gospel says with pardonable 
exaggeration, would leave their homes and their work and 
travel miles upon miles to seek him. Wherever he went his 
fame preceded him. He himself declared that the want of 
faith in his native place furnished a sad exception to the rule. 
Now and then the pent-up enthusiasm would find vent in such 
an exclamation as that of the woman who pronounced his 
mother blessed. At one time the mothers brought their little 
ones to receive his blessing ; at another, a man who had not 
in the least understood him was nevertheless so deeply im- 
pressed b}- his power and his influence upon his hearers that 



258 HOW THE PREACHING OF JESUS WAS RECEIVED. 

he determined to take advantage of his moral ascendancy over 
others for the regulation of his own famil}- affairs. "Mas- 
ter ! " said he, " tell my brother to give me nry share of the 
inheritance." Jesus naturally declined to interfere ; his 
task and his qualifications lay in a very different direction. 
" Man ! " he replied, " who has made me a judge or an arbi- 
trator among 3-ou?" The incident, however, is a proof of 
the powerful impression he produced. 1 

But it was the subject of his preaching, above all, that 
secured him a hearing. What he said had always direct or 
indirect reference to the kingdom of God ; and the people 
listened eagerly, while their hearts drank in the consolation 
of his promises. How they thought and argued about him ! 
How they fixed on him the hopes he had revived, and won- 
dered what precisely was the part he had to play in preparing 
for the joyful future which drew nigh ! 2 We shall frequently 
meet with illustrations of all this as we proceed, and at pres- 
ent need only say that though opinions were from the nature 
of the case divided ; though Jesus often had to encounter un- 
favorable judgments ; though man}' of the people preferred 
the old wine to the new, stopped their ears against his preach- 
ing, and took offence at his freedom, — 3-et, on the whole, pub- 
lic opinion declared in his favor ; and it was probably owing 
in large measure to the favorable dispositions of the people 
that, though beset on many sides in Galilee, he yet retained 
his freedom unrestrained, and never quite lost his liberty of 
speech. 

And yet, however favorable his reception hy the masses 
might appear, it was very far indeed from satisfying him. 
We have not forgotten the parable of the sower. 3 Now the 
seed of the word that he scattered was in many cases lost 
when it might have borne abundant fruit. Nor was this the 
worst. The number of those whose heart was like the trod- 
den pathwa}- turned out to be great almost beyond the possi- 
bility of belief. The favorable impression Jesus made was as 
superficial as it was general. Nor had the work of John, 
when narrowly examined, been any richer in results. 4 But 
even with this example before him, and with his own pro- 
found knowledge of human nature, as shown in the parable 
of the sower, Jesus was grievously disappointed at last to find 
how little permanent effect he could produce. The harvest 
had given such a glorious promise, and had answered it so 

1 Lukexii. 13, 14. 2 Matthew xvi. 13, 14. 

8 See pp. 153, 154. 4 Sec p. 108. 



THE SOURCE OF JESUS STRENGTH. 259 

ill ! His dearest hopes, his most passionate efforts, had been 
thwarted. The image of the fig-tree gives striking expression 
to this disappointment when Jesus has reached Jerusalem ; 
but even before he leaves Galilee we find his high-wrought, 
long-cherished, bitterly-disappointed expectation bursting 
forth in a cry of " Woe!" over the cities of the Galilsean 
lake. The}' had been the chief scenes of his labors, and 
ought to have shown the richest and fairest fruits of his 
gospel. And Capernaum, distinguished and privileged even 
above the rest, by being his place of abode, is more bitterly 
reproached than all for having answered so poorly to its 
glorious opportunities. 

" Woe unto you, Chorazin ! woe unto you, Bethsaida ! for 
had the mighty works been done in Tyre and Sidon which 
have been done in } t ou, they would long ago have repented in 
sackcloth. But I tell you it will be more tolerable for Tyre 
and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you ! And thou, 
Capernaum ! that art exalted to heaven, thou shalt be brought 
down into the abyss ! for if the might}' works had been done 
in Sodom which have been done in thee, it would have re- 
mained unto this day. But I tell you it will be more tol- 
erable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than 
for thee ! " 2 



Chapter XXI. 

THE SOURCE OF JESUS' STRENGTH. 

Matthew VIII. 23-27, XIV. 22-33; Luke XL 1-13. 2 

WE have observed Jesus under the great disappointment 
of his life ; and we ask involuntarily how it was pos- 
sible to persevere in spite of the coldness of his relatives and 
fellow-townsmen, the opposition of his devout countrjmien, 
and the shallowness of the multitude? For, in spite of his 
extreme sensitiveness and delicacy, he preserved an exalted 
calmness which was but seldom disturbed, and then only for 
a moment. He continued his unwearied toil even when it 
seemed most fruitless. Nay, the more deadly the conflict 
grew the calmer did he seem to be. 

1 Compare Matthew x. 14, 15. 

2 Matt&ew vi. 7-13, vii. 7-11 ; Mark iv. 35-41, vi. 45-52 ; Luke viii. 22-25 



260 THE SOURCE OF JESUS' STRENGTH. 

It was his trust in God that strengthened him. On Him 
he threw all care for the result of his efforts and for his own 
personal fate. We shall not dwell upon this trust in the 
words of Jesus himself, for we have already done so ; 1 but 
we will give a description of his repose in God, conve}*ed 
by the Evangelists in an emblematic account of a voyage 
across the Lake of Galilee, from Capernaum to the south-east 
shore : — 

It was evening when he embarked, and his disciples fol- 
lowed him. But hardly had they put out when a storm burst 
upon them, and lashed the waters that were usually so smooth 
and quiet into fierce turmoil. The wind howled through the 
tackle, and mocked the utmost strength of the rowers as they 
toiled to make head against it. The feeble vessel was now 
reared on high and now buried among the foaming waves 
that dashed ovei her deck and gradually filled her, so that 
she drew heavier and deeper every moment. This could not 
last much longer. The vessel must inevitably sink. Jesus 
meanwhile was asleep. At their wits' end, the disciples ran 
to the stern, where he had stretched himself to rest upon a 
cushion near the helm, and where the fearful danger had not 
disturbed the slumbers that succeeded his clay's work. They 
waked him with the ciy, "Help, Lord! we are perishing!" 
" What do } t ou fear ? " he said, on waking; "where is your 
faith?" Then he stood up, gazed out into the storm, and 
with a gesture of command chid the wind and waves. Then 
the wind was hushed and the waters stilled, and there was a 
great calm. Well might they all be lost in wonder ! Well 
might the} T ask, "What manner of man is this, whom the 
winds and the sea obey?" 

It has been asked whether some fact may not lie at the 
bottom of this story. It has been suggested, for instance, 
that when Jesus and his disciples were crossing the lake they 
were overtaken by a storm, and that the Master's unshaken 
trust put to shame the terror of the disciples. A similar 
story is told of Julius Caesar. Once he had taken ship in 
disguise to cross the Adriatic Sea, and the helmsman, terri- 
fied by the adverse wind, dared not pursue his course. But 
Caesar said to him, " Fear not, my friend ! you carry Caesar 
and his fortunes ! " The analogy, however, does not appear 
to us a happy one ; and the whole line of investigation seems 
fruitless, and even frivolous, — for the original picture was 
obviously symbolical. Others have found in it a type of the 

i Compare pp. 151 ff., 168 ff. 



THE SOURCE OF JESUS* STRENGTH. 261 

Christian Church under the storm of persecution which threat- 
ened it with destruction till Christ rescued it. But the Gos- 
pels obviously lay the stress upon the circumstance that Jesus 
was asleep, — that he was absolutely at rest in the midst of 
such dire agitation and distress. How many storms broke 
loose upon him in his own personal experiences and the fren- 
zied indignation of others, — in the passionate opposition and 
the dark schemes of his antagonists ! Yet in the might of 
his faith in God he maintained his own unruffled serenity, and 
quieted mairy a storm which the opposition he met had raised 
in the bosoms of the terrified disciples. 

Now, this trust was sustained and strengthened by prayer. 
It is only natural that we should have but scanty accounts 
on this subject ; for prayer belongs essentially to our secret 
life, and we know that Jesus least of all men could bear that 
his intercourse with God should be pried into by the eyes of 
strangers. 1 But still we hear enough to enable us to form 
some approximate conception of the fact. It is with true 
perception that our Gospels, especially the third, represent 
Jesus as pra} T ing to God at every crisis of his life, and before 
every step of special importance. He pra} T s after his bap- 
tism, after his first success at Capernaum, before selecting 
the Twelve, before asking the question which results in his 
recognition as the Messiah. The symbolical account of the 
transfiguration represents him as praying ; he has been pra} T - 
ing when his disciples ask him to teach them a prayer ; he 
prays when about to enter on his last sufferings ; and, finally, 
on the cross itself. 2 

We have already called attention to this, and we have 
heard Jesus more than once dwell upon prajrer and its effi- 
cacy. 3 At present we need only call to mind that he appears 
to have attached little value to prescribed or formal prayer, 4 
and that when he felt the need of turning aside from his ac- 
tive duties to hold communion with God, he loved to be alone, 
— climbing some hill or seeking out some uninhabited spot 
(which the Gospels call a "wilderness"). If he could find 
no time in the day, he would steal the hours of the night ; 
and indeed his heart and head must often have been too full 
to allow him to sleep. Not that we are to think of him as 

1 Compare p. 222. 

' 2 Luke iii. 21, v. 16 (compare Mark i. 35; vi. 46 ; Matthew xiv. 23), vi 12, 
ix. 18, 28, xi. 1, xxii. 41 , 42 (Matthew xxvi. 36 ff. ; Mark xiv. 32 ff. ), xxiii. 34, 4a 
8 See pp. 138, 182, 191, 193, 194, 196, 222, 223. 
* See pp. 140, 180, 250. 



262 THE SOURCE OP JEStJS' STRENGTH. 

speaking to God hour after hour ; for he himself declared that 
prayers should be short, since the} 7 were so apt, if prolonged, 
to degenerate into mere lip-service. But he looked up to 
God as he thought over all he had encountered and the work 
he had to do, considered his line of action and weighed his 
prospects, — until at last all earthly motives and considera- 
tions entirely disappeared, and the Father's will gradually 
came out more and more clearly as the only test of what 
must be done and left undone. It was, indeed, familiar in- 
tercourse with God, a childlike confidence, in which he poured 
out all his cares and wishes, hopes and fears, jo t ys and sor- 
rows, before God, and from which he never returned without 
being enlightened, comforted, and strengthened, — in a word, 
without being heard. 

But we are not limited to mere incidental references con- 
tained in the words of Jesus and the narratives concerning 
him ; for he sometimes spoke expressly on the nature of true 
prayer and the certainly of its being heard. We refer in the 
first place to the well-known " Lord's Prayer," which he gave 
to his disciples as a model. Two of the Evangelists have 
preserved this pra}'er ; but the forms in which they give it, 
and the occasions to which the} T assign its origin, differ. 
We value it too highly not to hear them both. 

Matthew, then, makes it an example of brevity, and con- 
trasts it with the superstitious practice that he attributes to 
the heathen, but which was realty far more characteristic of 
the Jews, — of besieging the Deity with endless verbosity and 
repetition, as if to wear out his patience and compel him to 
grant the request. According to Jesus this is a gross error. 
God does not need our prayers to teach him what we require, 
but we, on our side, do need to pour out our hearts to God. 

"When you pray, use no vain repetitions as others do; 
for they think that a multitude of words will gain them a 
hearing. Be not you like them ; for your Father knows 
what } T ou require before } t ou ask him. Pray, then, after this 
manner : Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy 
name. Tlry kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as 
it is in heaven. Give us to-day to-morrow's bread. 1 And 
forgive us the debt of our trespasses as we too forgive those 
that have trespassed against us. And lead us not into temp- 
tation, but defend us from the Evil One." 2 

According to Luke, Jesus had gone apart to pray, and 
i After an amended version. 2 After an amended version. 



THE SOURCE OF JESUS' STRENGTH. 263 

when he returned, one of his disciples asked him in the name 
of all the rest to give them a formula of prayer. "Lord! 
teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." To this 
Jesus answered, "When you pray, sa}^ : Father! Hal- 
lowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us, each 
day, bread for the morrow. And forgive us our trespasses 
as we too forgive all who have trespassed against us. And 
lead'us not into temptation." * 

According to some early authorities the second clause of 
the prayer, as given by Luke, was not " Tlry kingdom come," 
but " Ma}' thy Holy Spirit come upon us to purify us." In 
any case the original form of this, as well as of the other 
clauses, appears to be most faithfully preserved in the first 
Gospel. The " Authorized Version" adds the words, "For 
thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. 
Amen ; " and this conclusion appears in some manuscripts 
with the omission of " the kingdom" or of " the power and 
the glory ; " but in any case it is not genuine, and only 
sprang up in the second century, when the prayer began to 
be used in the assemblies of Christian worshippers. The 
word Amen, that is "Verily," or "So be it," was not used 
by the Israelites or by the Christians of the apostolic age as 
a formula for closing a pra} T er ; but when the leader of the 
devotions had prayed, the congregation would say Amen! as 
a sign that the} T adopted the prayer and firmly believed that 
it would be heard.' 2 There is no doubt, then, that this dox- 
ology is of later origin ; and it is equally certain that the 
" Lord's Pra3'er" itself did not come into common use for a 
considerable time. The disciples understood perfectly well 
that Jesus did not intend to give them a cop} 7 or formula of 
prayer, but simply to illustrate the dispositions which ought 
to find expression in their devotions ; and though the con- 
nection in which the prayer is given by Luke might very 
easily give rise to misunderstandings, w T e do not find a single 
indication throughout the first century of Christianity of its 
ever having been used as a set formula. 

If we go on to ask what the dispositions were which Jesus 
thought essential to true prayer, we shall find much to reflect 
upon. To begin with the invocation, "Our Father who art 
in heaven ! " In the first place it enjoins a childlike inter- 
course with God, simple, natural, easy, and absolutely trust- 

1 After an amended text and version. 

2 Compare Deuteronomy xxvii. 15-26; 1 Chronicles xvi. 36; Nehemiah viii 
6: Psalm cvi. 48; 1 Corinthians xiv. 16. 



264 THE SOURCE OF JESUS' STRENGTH. 

ful ; and at the same time it breathes deep reverence and a 
sense of awe. And then that " our," which constantly recurs 
in the sequel, implies a brotherly love that can ask nothing 
for itself alone, but must always include others in its prayer, 
and can never wish to gain any thing at another's cost. In 
connection with this thought, and in agreement with other 
utterances of the Master, the fifth petition insists upon a for- 
giving disposition as essential to pi^yer. 1 And Jesus would 
have us throw even our temporal wants, alwa} T s restrained 
within the bounds of moderation, upon God. He would 
have us, in the strength of pra} T er, banish all anxiet} T for the 
morrow ; 2 but he emphatically requires and assumes that the 
longing for the establishment of the kingdom of God must be 
uppermost in the prayerful soul, and so must take the first 
and the chief place in all communion with God. To Jesus 
himself, and to all his followers, the fervent longing for the 
kingdom of God had of course the uncontested precedence of 
all else. And since this kingdom comes and is extended in 
proportion as God's will is obe} T ed and executed by men with 
the readiness, the completeness, and the love of angels, and 
since we know, alas ! how far we are from doing the will of 
God in this spirit, we cannot help turning inward and feeling 
sadly in the midst of our pra3 r er how weak we are, how sin- 
ful we have been, and how pressing is our need of support 
from on high in our conflict against sin. Truly, whoever 
has realized the dangers that surround and threaten his 
moral life will follow the exhortation given b} T Jesus to his 
friends in one of the most tiying hours of his life, and will 
pray that he may not enter into temptation ; for, however 
willing our spirit may be, our flesh is miserably weak. 8 And 
so the prayer concludes with the petition that God will pre- 
serve us from ever falling into the power of sin. 

It has been remarked that several clauses of the " Lord's 
Prayer" recur in the same or analogous forms in Jewish 
prayers of various periods. Jesus never dreamed of expressly 
avoiding the language of religion familiar to his people and 
his age ; and some of the expressions used in the pikers of 
the synagogue must have remained in his memory and be- 
come endeared to him. It is likety enough, therefore, that 
he purposely adopted certain current phrases instead of 
inventing new ones, when his disciples questioned him as to 

i Compare Mark xi. 25, 26; Matthew v. 23, 24; and pp. 161, 162. 

* See p. 169. 

B Matthew xxvi. 41 (Mark xiv. 38, Luke xxii. 46). 



THE SOURCE OF JESUS' STRENGTH. 265 

the nature of true prayer. But he certainly threw into these 
old expressions an unsuspected wealth and depth of new 
meaning ; and he was concerned only with the dispositions 
of the heart, not the form of their expression. How com- 
pletely following generations have misunderstood him ! As 
a rule they have troubled themselves but little as to the 
spirit of the " Lord's Prayer," and throughout the ages the 
words have been committed to memory b} T millions, and 
thoughtlessly muttered over and over again in endless repe- 
tition ! The reformer Luther might well say that there 
never had been such a martyr as the " Lord's Prayer " ! 

We need not insist upon the light which this short praj'er 
throws upon the inner life of Jesus, especially in his hours of 
prayer, or upon all his intercourse with God. This must be 
obvious to every one. But it may be necessary to insist that 
unless we are in sympathy with that inner life itself, and have 
in some measure appropriated its spirit, it is utterly impossi- 
ble for us to understand the Master's certaint} r that every 
prayer is heard, or to know what we are doing when we at- 
tempt to judge of its truth. If we entirely misunderstand 
and disobey the Master we shall, of course, fail to realize the 
blessings which he experienced himself and promised to all 
his disciples from prayer. 

' ' Ask in prayer and it shall be given you ; seek and you 
shall find ; knock and it shall be opened to you. For every 
one who asks in prayer receives, and he who seeks finds, and 
to him who knocks it is opened." 

The rising intensity, the repetition, and the solemn asseve- 
ration of these words are enough to convince us that Jesus 
was not only free himself from every shadow of doubt that 
prayers are answered, but also desired to remove such doubts, 
once for all, from the minds of others. He tried, accordingly, 
to expose the absurdity of all doubt, and the unworthiness 
of all lack of perfect trust, by an analog} T taken from daily 
life: — 

" Would any one of 3011 give his son a stone, if he asked 
him for a cake of bread ; or a serpent, if he asked him for 
a fish? And if even you, whose very love is selfishness in 
comparison with the Highest love, if even you know how to 
give good gifts to 3-our children, how much more will your 
heavenly Father give good things to those that ask him ! " 

We may safely say that Jesus spoke thus from his own ex- 
perience. Not that every one of the wishes he had laid be- 

VOL. III. 12 



2G6 THE SOURCE OF JESUS' STRENGTH. 

fore God had been fulfilled. Far indeed was this from being 
the case ! But though he did not alwa}^s receive exactly what 
he asked for, he had never prayed in vain. Otherwise he 
could never have borne up so bravely and accomplished so 
much when almost utterly bereft of human support, persevered 
under such cruel misconception and opposition, retained his 
zeal under every kind of disappointment, held his own in 
every conflict, and accomplished the task of his life. He had 
reason, then, for his absolute faith in the power of prayer ; 1 
and with reference to the spiritual gifts which man implores 
from God, he supplemented his paradox on the power of 
faith by the words : ' ' Whatever you ask in prayer, believe 
that you have it, as it were, already, and it will be given you ; " 
or, as another Gospel expresses it : " Whatsoever } t ou ask in 
faith, you shall receive." 2 

It is of less consequence, though worthy of a passing no- 
tice, that Luke again departs further than the first Evangelist 
from the original words of the Master's reasoning, which is 
what the logicians call an argument a fortiori. He adds a 
third instance : ' k Which of you would give his son a scorpion 
if he asked him for an egg ? " This example is not so well 
chosen as the others ; for it might be possible to palm off a 
stone for one of the hard, flat, round cakes of bread common 
in the East, and a serpent might perhaps pass for a dried fish, 
but a scorpion could not well be mistaken for an egg. Luke 
also specifies the Holy Spirit as the ' ' good gift " which God 
will give. This is an explanation of the Master's saying in 
the spirit of Paul. Finally, he tries to show b}^ another ex- 
ample from daily life, in this case a special incident, that even 
men generally comply with a request at last, though it in- 
volves some trouble ; how much less will God refuse ! 

Suppose, he says, you have received an unexpected visit 
from a friend who is on a journe} r , and has come upon you in 
the middle of the night. He is hungry, but }'OU happen to 
have nothing in the house. What is to be done? The shops 
have long been shut, but j r ou have a neighbor with whom 3-011 
are on friendly terms ; so, in spite of the unseasonable hour, 
you put a bold face on it and knock at his door. " Who is 
there?" he cries, as soon as the noise has waked him. Then 
3^ou begin to beg him to help 3 T ou out of 3'our difficulty. " My 
dear friend," you sa3 T , " do lend me a few cakes of bread ; 
for an acquaintance of mine who is travelling this way^ has 

1 Matthew xxvi. 53. 

2 Mark xi. 24 (Matthew xxi. 22); compare pp. 194, 195, and James i. 5, 6. 



THE SOUKCE OF JESUS' STRENGTH. 267 

just come to 1113* house, and I have nothing to offer him." 
But the other answers peevishly, and without coming down, 
'• Leave me alone ! The house is locked up, and the children 
are asleep with me. How can I get up to find the bread and 
unbolt the door?" And yet I tell you he will do it, if not for 
friendship's sake, yet to satisfy the importunity that has dis- 
turbed his rest. For one reason or another he will put on his 
clothes and give you what you want. Do you think, then, 
that God will let 3'ou supplicate him in vain ? 

There is something that shocks our sense of reverence in 
the application of such incidents of human life to God, and 
we never meet with an}' thing of the kind in the parables of 
undoubted authenticity. The same characteristics, however, 
reappear in several stories in the third Gospel, none of which, 
we have reason to believe, are genuine. We are therefore 
amply justified in questioning the authenticit} 7 of this descrip- 
tion also. At any rate, we know already that Jesus did not 
really regard the efficacy of prayer as dependent on divine ca- 
price, which must be wearied or forced into compliance. His 
experience taught him that the heavenly Father cannot allow 
the children who lay their spiritual wants before him to 
suffer need. 

It was prayer, then, that gave Jesus strength ; prayer that 
kept his trust in God, his hope and his courage from fading 
away, that preserved him from ever failing in self-surrender, 
obedience, or love. Communion with God gave him all the 
strength he needed to persevere in his unwearied labors, 
watchfully to maintain the struggle, to make all things, even 
the keenest sufferings, minister to the development and hal- 
lowing of his character. The whole course of his life, and 
above all his death, proves that this was so. 

Prayer strengthened him for all things, and made him, 
when surrounded by dangers on ever} 7 side, a perfect type of 
the tranquil power of faith. This conception is visibly set be- 
fore us in an emblematic story, which so strongly resembles 
that of the storm at sea with which we began this chapter 
that it might almost be regarded as a later modification or 
elaboration of it. Nevertheless, it has a sufficiently strongly 
marked character of its own to deserve a special treatment. 
In the Gospels it follows immediate!}' after the feeding of the 
five thousand. 

Jesus, with the most limited possible means at his command, 
had aVundantly satisfied the wants of countless multitudes. 1 
1 See rp- 148, 149. 



268 THE SOURCE OF JESUS' STRENGTH. 

Iil mediately afterwards he commanded his disciples, who 
would rather have stayed with him. to embark alone and cross 
the lake. He would presently join them himself, but must 
first dismiss the crowd. As soon as he had clone so, he went 
up the mountain to pray. He felt that he must be alone with 
God. It is an eloquent touch in the story, that shows us how 
even Jesus, who was so rich that he could give food to all 
that multitude, yet felt poor and helpless before God, and 
could do nothing without prayer ! But what that prayer could 
enable him to do the sequel will declare. 

The shades of night had fallen upon the lake, in the midst 
of which were the disciples in their boat, while Jesus alone 
was on the land. He saw them from the hill, struggling in 
vain to make head against the strong west wind, while the 
might}' waA r es tortured and wrenched the vessel. Upon this 
he came to them, walking upon the water, about the fourth 
watch of the night (from three to six in the morning) . He 
was on the point of passing them by ( ?) when the}' saw him 
walking upon the sea, and thinking it was a ghost, were ter- 
rified and shrieked for fear. But Jesus said at once, " Be of 
good courage ! It is I. Fear not ! " Then he got up into 
the boat, and the wind was hushed. In their own minds they 
were all filled with consternation, for their shallow hearts had 
not understood their Master's power, even when he fed the 
crowd miraculously. 

If the story went no further it might be supposed really to 
refer to the Christian community rather than to Jesus him- 
self. 1 Bereft of his personal presence, given over to the 
world's hostility, the flock of Jesus looked forward through 
the night of persecution to his return, of which no man knew 
the hour, 2 — it might be in the first, the second, the third, or 
not till the fourth watch of the night ! 3 Or when not looking 
for his immediate return, the followers of Jesus at least ex- 
pected his might to interpose on their behalf, and if he was 
with them, or lent them his help, the}' would at once be saved 
from their distress. Perhaps this is the meaning of the story 
in Mark, or his authority. But the first Gospel gives us a 
different impression, and has, we are inclined to think, pre- 
served the original meaning more faithfully. Here another 
figure appears upon the canvas, probably painted in by a 
later hand, and removes the possibility of doubt as to the 
meaning of the picture. When Jesus had striven to calm his 

1 See p. 260. 2 Matthew xxiv. 42, xxv. 13. 

8 Compare Mark vi. 47, 18 with Mark xiii. 35. 



THE SOURCE OF JESUS' STRENGTH. 269 

terrified disciples, Peter, says the Gospel of Matthew, cried 
out from the ship, " Lord ! if it is 3'ou, command me to come 
to yon on the water." " Come then ! " answered Jesus. Then 
Peter dropped from the ship and began to walk upon the 
water to him. But when he saw how the fierce gusts of 
wind were lashing the waves he was afraid, and immediately 
began to sink. -'Lord! help me!" he cried in terror, and 
Jesus put out h]» hand and seized him, with the words of 
gentle but serious rebuke, "Why did you doubt, 3011 of 
little faith?" As soon as they had ascended the boat the 
wind was hushed, and the men bowed down before Jesus and 
confessed, " Truly thou art the son of God ! " 

The picture is now as clear as we could wish. Jesus, in 
the might of prayer, walks calmly through the storm on the 
raging billows of the world. 1 But his disciples, though their 
danger is far less than his, are beside themselves with fear. 
There is but one of them who has a moment's courage, and 
even his heart sinks almost directly. But for the delivering 
hand of Jesus 2 he would perish. He lacks the mighty faith 
which makes all things possible to Jesus. 3 

It almost seems as if the three pictures of the Master him- 
self, of the disciples, and of Peter must be meant to refer to 
the events of the last evening of the life of Jesus. But apart 
fiom personal references the story of the walking on the sea 
i9 a masterpiece. An art-critic of the highest rank 4 has as- 
signed it a place of honor among legends that excel in beauty 
and depth of meaning ; for it puts, as it were, before our very 
eyes this weighty truth : Man can overcome the extremest 
difficulties and obstacles in the fulfilment of his task so long 
as he is supported by the ever fresh courage of faith, but no 
sooner does the smallest fear creep over him than he is lost. 

No man has ever exemplified this power of faith more 
strikingly than Jesus. 

Compare Job ix. 8 ; Daniel vii. 2; Revelation xiii. 1. 
5 Compare Luke xxii. 32. 8 Compare Matthew xvli. 20. 

4 3oethe, 



270 THE GATHERING SI OEM. 



Chapter XXII. 

THE GATHERING STORM. 

Matthew XIV. l-13a, xv. 1-20; Luke XIII. 31-33.1 

WITHIN a few months, at most, after the commence- 
ment of the ministry of Jesus, clouds had already 
begun to appear on the horizon ; but they had gradually 
risen in greater number, and were now gathering darkly over 
the Master's head. If the Evangelists had strictly followed 
the order of time in their narratives, the whole course of 
events would be clear to us, and we should understand how 
the relations between Jesus and the established powers be- 
came more and more strained, and the opposition to him grew 
in intensity. Even as it is, though our authorities often ar- 
range their materials with reference to the subject-matter 
rather than the sequence of time, we may still follow the 
course of events with tolerable certainty ; but to do so we 
must set aside certain isolated and incorrect statements to the 
effect that the enemies of Jesus had laid plots to get him out 
of the way, even at an early period. 2 Our general impression, 
then, is that after Jesus had been at work for perhaps some- 
thing less than a year, the storm began to gather from two 
quarters. The friendly disposition or complete indifference 
with which the popular leader of Nazareth and the new 
Messianic movement in Galilee were at first regarded now 
gave way to a hostile and even definitely aggressive line of 
conduct, in which it appears that the civil as well as the 
religious authorities took part. 

Let us begin with an event which must have moved Jesus 
deeply, both on its own account and as an omen of the fate 
he had to expect himself. This event was the death of John. 
The account we have of it runs as follows : — 

The prophet of the wilderness paid, by the loss of his lib- 
erty, for his boldness in rebuking the tetrarch's marriage with 
his half-brother's wife. 3 The only reason why he was not put 
to death at once was that Herod shrank from exasperating 
the multitudes too much, and they reverenced John as a 

i Mark vi. 14-29, vii. 1-23; Luke ix. 7-9. 

2 Mark iii. 6 (Matthew xii. 11). » See pp. 122, 123. 



THE GATHERING STORM. 271 

pioi.het. According to other authorities Herodias desired 
the prophet's death, but her husband protected him ; for once 
he had summoned him into his presence and had received so 
strong an impression of his uprightness and sanctity that he 
had ever since entertained a feeling of awe towards him, and 
had protected. him from eveiy injury. In fact, although the 
prophet's exhortations always threw him into great dejection 
and perplexity, he could not help sending for him repeatedly. 
All this did but confirm Herodias in her murderous design, 
for the implacable hatred of the offended woman was still 
further heightened by fear for her own future when she saw 
what a hold the prophet was evidently gaining upon the prince 
himself. 

At last her opportunity came. It was Herod's birthday, or 
perhaps the anniversary of his accession to the throne. The 
grandees of the kingdom, the captains of the army, and the 
heads of the most distinguished families were invited to court 
to give lustre to the feast. The splendor displa} r ed was daz 
zling ; the pleasures offered to the distinguished guests over- 
powered the senses ; boundless prodigality and entrancing 
luxury reigned supreme. Herodias had prepared a surprise 
for the guests. The feast was far advanced when Herod's 
step-daughter was announced. As soon as she was admitted, 
she begged her prince and step-father to allow her to dance 
for the entertainment of his guests. Could a princess deign 
to display herself like a common dancing-girl before so many 
unchaste e} T es? Had she no motive but affectionate attention 
to the founder of the feast? Herod had no suspicion, and 
readily accepted her offer. Then Salome, for so the girl was 
called, began. She threw herself into ever}' bewitching atti- 
tude or movement which the veiy perfection of art admitted ; 
and as her lovely form glanced or floated before their eyes, 
the spectators were so enraptured by her grace that they all 
gazed upon her in speechless admiration, till a great burst of 
applause greeted the close of her performance. Herod him- 
self was transported with delight, and signified his pleasure 
b} r a promise of princely magnificence : " Ask what you will, 
and you shall have it." And when she seemed at first to 
iecline any recompense, he repeated with a mighty oath, 
»' Name your boon ! for it shall be granted, though it were 
half my kingdom ! " " Then bring me the head of John the 
Baptist here on a salver ! " she cried, for her mother had 
taught her her lesson well. Herod was thunderstruck by the 
request ; but, however deeply moved, he dare not break the 



272 THE GATHERING STORM. 

oath that he had sworn, especially in the presence of all his 
guests. So he gave the murderous command against which 
his heart revolted. A guard was instantly despatched to the 
prison, where he did the wretched deed ; and immediately the 
prophet's severed head was brought to the princess on a salver. 
She took it, and, thanking the prince for his favor, retired to 
bear the reward of her art to her mother. Herodias was 
avenged, and could now rest in peace. 

When the disciples of John heard of their master's fatal 
end, they begged for the bod}', and gave it an honorable 
burial. Then the}' went to Jesus and told him all that had 
occurred, upon which he left his work for a little while, took 
ship, and retired to a solitary place on the other side of the 
lake. 

Not long afterwards the name of Jesus happened to be 
mentioned in connection with that of his predecessor at 
Herod's court. At that time divers opinions concerning him 
prevailed among the mass of his followers ; some held him to 
be Elijah, and others some one of the old prophets. But 
when his fame reached Herod, the monarch's conscience 
smote him heavily, and he said to his courtiers, tk I believe 
he is John the Baptist himself, whom I beheaded ! He is 
risen from the realms of death, and that is why he has such 
wondrous powers." So he longed for an opportunity of seeing 
him. He would have one soon. 

This eminently dramatic story certainly cannot be accepted 
as it stands. It betrays too much art in its striking con- 
trasts between the manners of the court and the person of 
the prophet. We have already seen that the occasion of 
John's imprisonment is not correctly given by the Gospels. 
That such a man as Herod " delighted in hearing" John is, 
to say the least, an exaggeration. The ghastly scene in which 
the prophet's head is carried into the festive hall may not be 
quite impossible in such an age and at such a court, but it is 
hardly probable. It is easy to see that Herodias is drawn 
after the model of Ahab's wife, who hated and persecuted the 
first Elijah ; 1 and Salome is evidently copied from Esther, for 
she, too, visits the prince by surprise, captivates him by her 
beauty, obtains a promise of any thing up to the half of his 
kingdom, and at the festive board demands the death of her 
enemy as the royal boon.' 2 Finally, the real Salome was no 
longer a girl at this period, but the wife, if not the widow, of 
the tetrarch Philip ; 3 so that the dance at least is unhistorical 

* 1 Kings xix. 2, xxi. 25. 2 Esther v. 2, 3, 6, vii. 2. 3 See p. i. 



THE GATHERING STORM. 273 

Is the whole story a pure fiction then? That would be too 
much to assert. We must certainly accept it as a fact that 
John remained some time in prison. 1 Nor is it improbable 
that a woman's hatred contributed to his fall, for shortly after- 
wards, when Herod was defeated in battle by the insulted 
father of his former wife, whom he had rejected in favor of 
Herodias, the populace connected his disaster with the mur- 
der of John. This would be all the more natural if Herodias 
had been the cause of her husband's crime as well as of his 
disaster. 2 It is impossible to doubt that Herod heard of 
Jesus, and there is nothing in itself improbable in the ques- 
tion of his troubled soul, especially as given by Luke: iL I 
have beheaded John, — who can this man be of whom I hear 
such things ? " The only difficulty is that one does not quite 
see how the disciples were to know what Herod had said on 
the subject. Finally, a later tradition says that Herodias 
secretly buried the head in the court of the castle, and cast 
out the trunk with ignominy ; but we have no reason to sus- 
pect the statement that the disciples of John buried their 
master's bocty and brought the tidings to Jesus, who imme- 
diately crossed the lake. 

We need not sta}' to ask whether in crossing the Sea ol 
Gennesareth Jesus was flying from Herod ; whether, at any 
rate, he thought it best to leave the territory of Antipas for a 
time, and put himself out of reach of an}* attack or persecu- 
tion. Without recourse to such a supposition, we can well 
believe that on hearing of the death of his predecessor, whom 
he honored so deepty, he felt that he must retire into solitude 
to reflect upon an event which had so greatly shocked him. 
Was that the earthly reward of one who had consecrated his 
undivided heart to God's kingdom, and had been the greatest 
of his messengers ? Jesus had often heard and read of the 
persecutions to which the prophets were exposed of old, but 
it was a very different thing to be the witness of such events 
himself. Moreover, this John had not contented himsejf with 
simply preaching the near approach of God's kingdom, — he 
had, at the divine behest, put his own hand to the work to 
hasten its approach. What a bitter disappointment that he 
should fall by the headsman's sword before the promise was 
fulfilled ! ... It was all an enigma ; and though Jesus never 
doubted for a moment in the truth of God's promises and 
the approach of the great deliverance, he could no longer 
i See pp. 253 ff. 2 See pp. 108, 123. 

12* 



274 THE GATHERING STORM. 

guess what ways or methods God would choose to bring these 
things to pass. Might not such a fate as John's be hanging 
o^ er his own head ? Was it not at least possible that he too 
must fall in the good cause ? Might not the opposition which 
was ever growing in intensity at last end in his death ? And 
if it should appear that such was indeed God's will, what did 
it mean? Why had John fallen? How could his own de- 
struction ever help the coming of God's kingdom? Could it 
be possible that this sacrifice was in some wa} T needed to se- 
cure the triumph of his gospel? . . . 

Such thoughts, we may suppose, took possession of Jesus 
as he wandered in the solitary regions on the north-east shore 
of the lake. He certainly came to no hasty or sudden con- 
clusion, but these gloomy hours or da} T s of contemplation 
bore rich fruit. The captivity of the Baptist had been the 
signal for Jesus to begin his work, and his death appears to 
have marked a crisis in his spiritual growth. For we know 
that as during the Baptist's life he had closel}' connected the 
reception accorded to him with that which he had received 
himself, 1 so after his death he saw his own future lot fore- 
shadowed in that which had overtaken his predecessor. Thus 
he declared to his friends, " They have done what they would 
to John, and so shall I be handled by them also." 2 We are, 
therefore, not surprised to find him henceforth adopting a 
different tone and looking at every thing with different eyes 
from before. He watched every unfavorable indication more 
narrowly than ever, and gradually accustomed himself to con- 
template the possibility of his being rejected. In connection 
herewith, as we shall see, his attitude towards the multitude, 
towards their leaders, and towards the established authori- 
ties underwent a change ; he began to regard his own task, 
and even himself, in a new light, and all his plans came to 
maturity. 

There had been a time when far other thoughts as to his 
own lot, the result of his efforts, and the future in general 
had occupied his breast. He had entered upon his career 
joyously, and with the brightest hopes for his people. All 
things seemed to smile upon him then. What a change had 
taken place ! 

It was not long before it came to the ears of Jesus that his 
predecessor's murderer, who was not in the habit of trou- 
bling himself much about popular Jewish teachers, had been 

1 See p. 253 ; compare Matthew xxi. 24-27. 

2 Matthew xvii. 12. 



THE GATHERING STORM. 275 

alarmed by the reputation he had acquired, and had begun to 
watch his movements with no friendly eye. He came to heai 
of it in this way : — 

A short time, it seems, before he set out for the City of 
the Temple certain Pharisees came to him and said, " Make 
ready to depart, for Herod intends to kill you." It would 
seem from the conduct of Jesus, and the judgment he passed 
on their words, that these Pharisees stoogl in some closer con- 
nection with Herod than they cared to allow ; but his answer 
has certainly not come down to us in its original form. 
"Go," he is reported to have said, u Go and sa} T to that fox 
in my name, ' Behold ! to-day and to-uorrow I expel demons 
and perform cures, and the da} T after I have done. And yet 
to-da} T and to-morrow and the da} T after I must journey, for 
it cannot be that a prophet should die elsewhere than in Jeru- 
salem.' " All this is very obscure, if not contradictory. The 
beginning of the speech implies that casting out devils and 
healing the sick was the regular work of the Master's life 
from day to da}\ The words must certainty have been tam- 
pered with. Again, the conclusion is in direct contradiction 
with the fact that John had just perished awa}^ from Jerusa- 
lem. It appears most probable that the execution of John 
had caused so much indignation that Herod dared not further 
exasperate the people by laying hands on Jesus, and yet that 
he feared some serious disturbance might be the result of his 
preaching of the Messianic kingdom. Under these circum- 
stances, it would seem, he tried to drive him out of his do- 
minions by threats, and concerted measures for the purpose 
with the Pharisees. Jesus saw through the plot, which he 
denounced as a fox's trick, and declared that for the present 
(' k to-da}', to-morrow, and the next day" is a proverbial ex- 
pression for any short period) he should pursue his work 
fearlessly ; but he added that he should soon set out for Jeru- 
salem, not in fear of Herod, but because he must await the 
result of his labors — that result that would so probably be 
fatal — at Jerusalem, and not in Galilee. 

His prospects were indeed as dark as he had painted them. 

The storm that rose from the South was at least as danger- 
ous as the other. The fact was, that the ecclesiastical au- 
thorities had also come to the conclusion that they must take 
some definite steps against the Galilaean teacher of the peo- 
ple. Jesus had often shown, by his intercourse with sinners 
and his labors on the Sabbath day, that he thought the claims 



276 THE GATHERING STORM v 

of humanity more important than the precepts of the Law 
and the tradition ; and on these occasions he had always 
found that certain Pharisees were ready with their censures. 
But now the whole party — whose true home was the Chry of 
the Temple, the headquarters of Jewish theology and the 
hot-bed of extreme orthodoxy — entered the field against 
him, and the consequence was an avowed and definite 
rupture. 

Such, at least, appears to be the meaning of an encounter 
between Jes.is and certain Scribes. Some time after the death 
of John (the accounts of a similar measure at an earlier 
period deserve no credit * ) , some Pharisees who belonged to 
the class of Scribes came expressly from Jerusalem to the 
land of Gennesareth and attached themselves to Jesus, in 
order that they might have the opportunity of judging for 
themselves of his teaching and his conduct, and might act 
according^. These men, perhaps, were not exactly sent 
officially to Galilee, but it certainly was not solely at their 
own instance that they made the journej'. The fact was, that 
so many unsettling reports had reached Jerusalem as to the 
contempt for the Law shown by this teacher of Nazareth, 
whom so man}" of the people followed, that the Pharisaic 
party, or its leaders, did not think it prudent to remain pas- 
sive any longer. Some of their number, therefore, came to 
Galilee, where they soon made themselves fully acquainted 
with the position of affairs, and deliberately chose their point 
of attack. " Why," the}- asked severely, "do your follow- 
ers transgress the tradition of the elders in not washing their 
hands before they eat?" 

This was a test question, and we must try to understand 
its bearing. It was not a mere casual omission that was con- 
demned, as Mark would make it appear. 2 A great principle 
was at stake. The Pharisees accused Jesus of despising the 
" oral law" in a matter of extreme importance. The tradi- 
tion of the elders, or generations of old, had just as absolute 
authority with the Pharisees as the written law of Moses 
itself. Indeed, the} T believed that this tradition had been 
given by the Lord to Moses on Mount Sinai ; that he had 
communicated it to Joshua, and Joshua to the elders, frcm 
whom it had been received by the prophets, who handed it 
down in their turn from generation to generation, until they 

1 Luke v. 17 (compare Matthew ix. 1 ff., Mark ii. 1 ff.); and Mark iii 22 
(compare Matthew xii. 24. Se-' also p. 134, and chap. viii. p. 576). 

2 Mark vii. 2, 5. 



THE GATHERING STORM. 277 

committed it to the men of the Great Synagogue to be finally 
preserved and promulgated by the schools of theology and 
their leaders. On this account the leaders in question some- 
times enjoyed more respect from the masses than did the high 
priest himself. Indeed, since the written law was in a certain 
sense within the reach of every one, and the oral tradition 
could only be brought to the knowledge of the people by the 
teaching of the Scribes, these champions of religion were nat- 
urally disposed to attach the highest value to the satrcd trea- 
sure of which they we*e the special guardians, and ventured 
to assert, with an appeal to Moses himself, 1 that " the words 
of the Scribes were weightier than the words of the Law." 

As to the special point of washing hands before and partic- 
ularly after a meal, it was said that the precept had passed 
into forgetf ulness, but that Hillel and Shammai revived it and 
taught that it was absolutely binding. We read of a certain 
Rabbi Eleazar who was banished b} T the Sanhedrim for neg- 
lecting this sacred institution, the sentence remaining in force 
even after his death. Of course the object of these regula- 
tions was not to secure cleanliness, but to guard against cere- 
monial impurities. Indeed, precautions of this kind made up 
the substance of Jewish religion, whether interpreted b} r the 
Sadducees who held that the priests were more especially 
bound to preserve their sacred persons from irnpurhyy, or by 
the Pharisees who taught all the people of the Lord to take 
the same precautions. The dread of becoming unclean with- 
out intending it, especially b} r unwittingly using natural prod- 
uce from which no tithes had been paid, had contributed 
powerfully to the formation of the Pharisaic party. On re- 
turning from the market it was necessar} T to take a bath 
before eating airy thing, for who could tell with how many un- 
clean persons he might have come into contact? Cups, cans, 
brazen-ware, and even bedsteads required frequent washing 
for fear they might accidentally become unclean. Nor was 
all this, together with careful washing of the hands before 
eveiy meal, left to the discretion of each individual ; for the 
commandment was absolute. We ma} r see how miserably 
trivial the tradition on this point became by consulting the 
Mishna, the oldest and most important part of the Talmud. 
The Mishna is divided into six books, and the whole of one 
of them treats with incredible minuteness of "purifications." 
There are a hundred and twent}'-six chapters in it, four of 
which are specially devoted to the washing of hands before 

1 Deut* •onomy iv. 14, xvii. 10. 



2TS THE GATHERING STORM. 

meat. The discussion ran on such questions as whether the 
hands were to be held up or down, and whether the fingers 
only, the whole hand, or the arm up to the elbow must be 
made wet. A later Jewish treatise contains twenty-six direc- 
tions for this ceremony. 

It appears, therefore, that the point upon which Jesus was 
attacked was far from unimportant. Religion itself was at 
stake ! How did he defend himself? By a counter attack of 
crushing violence ! There is a tone of long-suppressed indig- 
nation, one would say, in the answer which he instantly made : 
" If you speak of transgression, wiry do you transgress God's 
law for the sake of your tradition ? For God said, ' Honor 
3 T our father and mother ! ' and, ' He who curses his father or 
mother, let him perish and find no mercy ! ' But } t ou say : If 
a man saj^s to his father or mother, Whatever I should natu- 
rally have devoted to your support is corban (that is, dedi- 
cated to the temple) , he is bound b} T his vow. You will not 
allow him to support his parents any longer, if he has vowed 
his mone}' to the temple. Thus have you disarmed the law 
of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites ! 
How truly does that saying of the prophet Isaiah fit you : 
' This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far 
from me ! In vain do they seek to honor me by stamping 
precepts on the people's heart, which are but commandments 
of men.' " 

This answer put an end to the discussion. A haughty si- 
lence was the only possible reply to such an onslaught. The 
faithful guardians of the tradition had not come all the way 
from Jerusalem to be put on their own defence ! And if the}' 
had any other complaints, difficulties, or questions in store, 
they might well be content without stating them, for the Naz- 
arene's declaration had been as frank and decisive as could 
possibly be desired. They knew all they wanted to know al- 
ready, and perhaps more. The narrative seems to indicate 
that Jesus himself was now convinced that he had nothing 
more to hope from the Scribes or from the Pharisees in gen- 
eral ; that a reconciliation was impossible, and that the only 
appeal lay to the general public. At least, we read that he 
now summoned the multitude and cried emphatically, " Listen 
to me all of you, and understand my words ! It is not that 
which goes into the mouth that defiles a man, but that which 
comes out of the mouth ! " His words were few, but there 
was matter enough for thought in them. When he was alone 
with his disciples again, Peter said to him, "Explain this 



THE GATHERING STORM. 279 

sa}ing to us ! " " What ! " he cried, " are even yon so dull 
uf comprehension still? Do you not understand that what- 
ever goes in at the mouth drops into the belly, and is there 
separated and cast away? But what comes out of the mouth 
is from the heart, and that defiles a man. For from the 
h eart come such evil thoughts as murder, adultery, unchastity, 
(heft, false witness, evil speaking against holy things. That 
s what defiles a man." 

So ' Jesus said ; but the second Evangelist makes him add 
;he veiy gratuitous explanation that the reason why nothing 
which comes from outside can defile a man is that it does 
not go into his heart but into his stomach. The first Evan- 
gelist, too, misses the far-reaching consequences of the say- 
ing, and limits its application by the closing words : ''But 
to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man." There 
was little ambiguity, however, in the words that Jesus used 
to the multitude and to his friends, or in the manly utter- 
ances that preceded them. They were an open declaration 
of war, not only upon such individuals as covered the lack 
of true piety in their hearts by strict compliance with the 
external ordinances of religion, or the schools which favored 
such hypocrisy, but on the Jewish conception of religion gen- 
erally. Surely no less than this was involved in his declara- 
tion that nothing external can make a man unclean in the 
sigtit of God ; in his passionate denunciation of the doctrine 
that so-called duties to God (in point of fact, duties to 
the temple and the priests) transcend all others ; that 
mone} T once set aside for sacred purposes must under no 
pretence be applied to secular objects ; that a son was at 
liberty, — nay, when once he had made the vow, was irrevoca- 
bly bound — to let his parents suffer want in favor of the tem- 
ple ! iW A noble wajV Mark makes him cry to the Scribes, — 
kw A noble way, in truth, of mocking the law of God to main- 
tain your own tradition, — and this is only one example out of 
many ! " There is something in the style in which he speaks 
of "your" tradition, as though it were totally external to 
himself ; something in his choice of an example that had filled 
him with the utmost indignation and appeared to him so 
absolute!}' conclusive ; something in his application to the 
pious Jews before him of Isaiah's stern rebuke, — that makes 
us ask whether he had not been goaded and exasperated 
already by events of which we have no record. At any rate, 
when his disciples came to him afterwards, and asked him 
with some trepidation, " Do you know how indignant the 



280 THE GATHERING STORM. 

Pharisees were when the}' heard what you said?" he an- 
swered, almost contemptuously, that since the Pharisaic 
school was not of God, it would soon meet its ruin : " Every 
plant that my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted 
up. Let them be ! They are blind leaders of the blind. If 
a blind man chooses a blind guide, they will both fall into 
the gutter ! " 

But it may still be asked whether it was not the oral law 
alone with which Jesus had broken, and which he declared 
to consist of mere "commandments of men;" whether he 
did not still acknowledge the divine authority of the Mosaic 
or written law, — especially as he cites the fifth of the Ten 
Commandments as the word of God? But observe! Jesus 
proclaimed and applied the principle that the religious life 
cannot be polluted except by the moral uncleanness which a 
man brings upon himself. He was evidently quite aware of 
the far-reaching consequences of this principle, and its flat 
contradiction of the Jewish religion. He knew perfectly 
well that the various laws as to clean and unclean food were 
contained in the books of Moses ; he knew that they were 
dear and sacred to the heart of the Jews (witness their 
conduct under the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes) , — ■ 
and 3^et he fixed upon these very laws, together with the 
innumerable regulations as to cleanness and purifications, as 
to sacrifices and vows ; and if he did not absolutely annul 
them, he yet roundly declared that the} T have no binding force 
and no intrinsic value. All this proves be} r ond dispute that 
he attributed divine authority to the commandment, " Honor 
thy father and thy mother ; " not because it was contained and 
enforced in the twentieth and twenty-first chapters of Exodus, 
but because the moral sense of man confirms it without ap- 
peal. The supremacy, then, not only of the tradition, but 
of the Law itself, he unhesitating^ rejects. 

But Jesus did not rasluy hurry his followers into eveiy pos- 
sible deduction that could be made from his principle. With 
perfect tact he confined himself in his controversy with the 
Scribes to one striking example, and, in his appeal to the 
multitude and his own disciples, kept to the subject then in 
hand. But he did not mean to let the matter rest here. 
This deliberate and emphatic appeal from the pious leaders 
to the people themselves had a double motive. In the first 
place, Jesus was now convinced that nothing could be done 
with these leaders, and that he must leave them to take their 
own course, whereas he still hoped better things from the 



THE GATHERING STORM. 281 

people's sense of truth ; but, in the second and principal 
place, he saw how the masses were bowed down beneath the 
weight of the regulations forced upon them on pain of incur- 
ring the wrath of God, so numerous that it was next to im- 
possible to observe them all ! He saw how hard, how veiy 
hard, this was upon them ; saw that it was a yoke they could 
not bear. 1 In direct antagonism to the Scribes, therefore, 
and in the hope of rescuing his fellow-countrymen altogether 
from the influence of the Pharisees, he gave more prominence 
to his own person henceforth than he had done hitherto. He 
had already absolved the multitude from the duty of blind 
obedience to the laws that related to food and ceremonial 
purity, and not long afterwards he invited them in more 
general terms to exchange the principles of the Pharisees for 
his: "Come unto me all you that are wearied and heav} r 
laden, and I will give you rest ! Take my yoke upon you 
and learn of me, for I am gentle and lowty of heart ; and you 
shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is eas} T , and my 
burden light." 2 Nor did he shrink from chastising that spir- 
itual pride which is fostered by a hard and formal religion. 
"You are the men," he said to the Pharisees, " who pass 
yourselves for righteous in human e} r es, but God sees into 
3 r our hearts ; and what is exalted by men is an abomination 
to God." 8 Finall}-, lie gave his followers the emphatic warn- 
ing : " Beware of the Pharisaic leaven ! " 4 

So the relations between Jesus and the Pharisees had long 
been growing sharper and more strained, and after this open 
rupture the breach between them could never be closed again. 
The contest now begun could end only with the absolute de- 
feat of one or other of the two parties. It was a struggle for 
life and death. 

After this momentous encounter, we are told that Jesus 
withdrew to the region of Tyre ; that is to say, to the bound- 
aries, perhaps even beyond them, of Phoenicia. 5 If this 
statement is trustworthy, we may certainly connect the jour- 
ne} 1, with the controversy that preceded it, and may suppose 
that after his collision with the Pharisees Jesus deemed it 
advisable to retire beyond the reach of his adversaries for a 
time. Since it was not his intention to preach in Phoenicia, 

1 Compare Acts xv. 10-19 ; Colossians ii. 20-22. 

2 Matthew xi. 28-30. 3 Luke xvi. 15. 
4 Matthew xvi. 6 (Mark viii. 15; Luke xii. 1). 

6 Mark vii. 24 (Matthew xv. 2U. 



282 THE GATHERING STORM. 

he would hardly have made a rather difficult expedition of 
two short days' journey, unless he had had some strong rea- 
son for it. How long he sta} T ed in the neighborhood of Tyre 
we are not told. Mark makes him journey still farther 
north, through the district of Sidon, and then turn south-east 
to the lake of Galilee, pass some way down its eastern shore 
apparently, and finally take ship and cross in a south-west- 
erly direction to Dalmanutha, where we meet him once again. 1 
But the Evangelist's geography is open to suspicion, and we 
are inclined to lay these apparently purposeless wanderings 
of Jesus to the account of Mark's want of accuracj^. At any 
rate, Matthew does not make him go either so far north or 
so far east, but represents him far more simply as returning 
from the boundaries of Phoenicia to the lake, and then cross- 
ing over to the neighborhood of Magdala. 2 

But did he really retreat at all? A similar step is men- 
tioned earlier, after an account of his" violating the Sabbath. 
But this is only in one of the Gospels, and the connection in 
which it occurs throws suspicion on it. 3 It is at any rate 
wortlry of notice that Jesus is said to have retired or fled on 
several similar occasions. When he heard that John was 
murdered he crossed the lake. After his dispute with the 
Pharisees about cleanness he went to Phoenicia ; and pres- 
ently, after another hostile encounter with the Pharisees, he 
crosses to the north-eastern shore and passes through Beth- 
saida to Caesarea Philippi. Thus we find him repeatedly re- 
tiring to a place of safety, and quitting the scene of conflict 
just when appearances are most threatening. If we may add 
the earlier voyage to the land of the Gadarenes, then we have 
four of these special journeys unconnected with missionarj' 
labors, — two of them south and north across the lake, and two 
to the extreme north of the country, east and west. This is 
a ver} T curious illustration of the growing difficult}' of his po- 
sition, and a proof that even if no overwhelming reasons had 
soon compelled him to set out for Jerusalem, he could hardly 
have quietly continued his work in Galilee. He had, in fact, 
no choice. 

But is it possible that Jesus fled ? Was it in keeping with 
his character or consistent with his dignit} 7 to do so? Not if 
he was really the wonder-worker that the Gospels say he was ; 
nor yet if he followed the prophets, as some people seem to 
think he did, in cherishing and recommending a trust in God 

i Mark vii. 31, viii. 10. 2 Matthew xv. 29, 39. 

3 Matthew xii. 15; compare Mark iii. 7. 



THE GATHERING STORM. 283 

wiich is fatal to all self-help and foresight, in leaving every 
thing to God and resting passively and blindly in his will and 
pleasure revealed lyy chance events ! But Jesus was not a 
man of this stamp. His religious belief, that all things were 
ordained by Providence, had no injurious effect whatever on 
his moral perceptions ; and he b}' no means felt absolved from 
the duty of self-preservation or from obedience to the moral 
law,, that commands us to protect our lives as long as it is in 
our power to do so. Jesus knew that to lose his life was to 
save it ; but that was only if conscience and the good cause 
require him to " hate" his life, and if he could only preserve 
it by forsaking his duty, — by falsehood and unfaithfulness. 
There was a difference between sacrificing his life and wan- 
tonly squandering and despising it. Jesus was no fanatic. 
Afterwards he came to see that the conflict must in all proba- 
bility result in his destruction, but at present this seemed far 
from certain ; and even when he saw that the catastrophe was 
almost inevitable, he still took every possible precaution that 
prudence could suggest, that he might have no cause to 
reproach himself. Again, at the time of which we are now 
speaking, — that is to say, during the last few months of his 
Galilaean ministry, — he had not yet fulfilled the task for 
which he felt himself to be personally responsible. The train- 
ing of his disciples, to which he had been able to give too lit- 
tle time as % yet, lay upon his heart, and he must of necessity 
make an appeal to the nation at large ; nor could this appeal 
be made anywhere but at Jerusalem. He had abundant 
"eason, then, for not throwing his life away. 

There is, however, a more valid objection to the truth of 
these accounts, and we have therefore expressed ourselves 
with hesitation. Two of the journeys, those to Gadara and 
Tyre, both of them places inhabited by heathen, are made the 
occasion of events which are entirely, unhistorical, — mere 
emblematic representations of the position of affairs in the 
apostolic age. The other two journeys — the one that fol- 
lowed the death of John, and the one to Cresarea Philippi — 
are certainly historical ; but in both these cases the desire to 
be alone with his disciples was a subsidiary, if not the prima^, 
motive in the mind of Jesus. On the other hand, it does not 
follow that because the accounts of what took place on two 
of the journeys are incredible, the journeys themselves were 
never made ; whereas the very desire to be alone with the 
Twelve for so long a time and at so great a distance is itself 
exceedingly significant. We may, therefore, adopt the con- 



284 JEWISH THIRST FOR THE MARVELLOUS. 

elusion with some confidence, that the work of Jesus assumed 
a new aspect during the last period of his stay in the regions 
of Galilee. He no longer appeared regularly in public, for he 
was constantly beset by his opponents. His previous jour- 
neys, generally short ones, had no other object than to enable 
him to preach the gospel of the kingdom at different places , 
but henceforth he repeatedly withdrew altogether, and for a 
time desisted from preaching. He seldom appeared in Caper- 
naum, never stayed there long, and — this can hardly be au 
accident — never again, so far as we know, taught in a syna- 
gogue. Henceforth he was much alone with his trusted 
friends till he set out for Jerusalem. It soon became clear 
that the end of his Galilsean ministry, and with it the decision 
of the conflict he had entered upon and the fate that awaited 
him, was approaching with rapid steps. 



Chapter XXIII. 

JEWISH THIRST FOR THE MARVELLOUS. 

Luke XVII. 20, 21 ; Matthew XVI. 1-3 ; Mark VIII. 11-13.1 

WE have seen the various powers in Israel adopt a 
threatening attitude towards Jesus, and have noticed 
the consequent modification in his line of action ; but we can- 
not consider our sketch of the growing embarrassment of 
his position complete until we have pointed out one of the 
deeper causes which made his rejection by his people almost 
certain. This rejection was not due to any concourse of acci- 
dental circumstances. It was the necessary outcome of the 
character of. the age and the religious disposition of the Jews. 
They had not the moral culture or the independent strength 
of faith which were required to understand and follow Jesus. 
In a word, they had not that sense of truth which was needed 
to test his words and principles, and to adopt them as ap- 
proved. When we remember the direction taken b} T Judaism 
since the days of Ezra, we shall hardly expect to find that 
quickness of moral perception, still less that independence of 
the authorit}^ of Scripture and tradition, without which it was 
impossible to do Jesus justice. There is, therefore, nothing 

1 Luke xii. 54-56, xi. 16, 29; Matthew xii. 38, 39. 



JEWISH THIRST FOR THE MARVELLOUS. 285 

to surprise us in his fate. An age in which orthodox}' holds 
sway over fettered reason and conscience cannot comprehend 
the proofs of the spirit, and is not satisfied with the creden- 
tials that Truth herself brings with her. An unspiritual peo- 
ple must have not only its conscience but its imagination fed, 
and this was a demand which Jesus could not meet. 

On this subject we have the unimpeachable evidence of a 
converted Jew, who had fought against the Nazarene with all 
his powers. Paul himself declared that the great reason why 
Israel did not believe was that " The Jews require a sign." 1 
He meant : ww Signs and wonders are the only proofs they will 
admit that any one is sent by God and is preaching the truth. 
Tf they cannot have this palpable, external proof, they with- 
hold their faith." On that demand for miracles, that deficient 
sense of truth, and the constant collisions that it caused 
between Jesus and the leaders of the nation, we will now fix 
our special attention. 

In the first place, our Gospel narratives, in their present 
form, are themselves the strongest proof how universal and 
how formidable this morbid craving had become. Issuing as 
they do from the circles of the faithful, they bear the stamp 
of the spirit that prevailed among them, and show us the con- 
ditions with which the preaching of Christianity had to com- 
ply, or rather the price it had to pa}' in order to gain a hearing. 
We see that it was compelled to set its original simplicity and 
purity aside, and make a wonder-worker of Jesus of Naza- 
reth. Prodigies, it was imagined, were necessary to mark 
him as the Christ. "Truly thou art the son of God!" cry 
the witnesses of his miraculous deeds. 2 " Is not this the son 
of David?" ask the astounded multitudes, 3 and the demons 
prove again and again that they are well aware of his dignity. 4 
In this spirit and from this cause all the emblematic sketches 
of the Master's outer actions and inner life which were in cir- 
culation from the earliest times were gradually transformed 
into stories of miracles. 

We have constantly endeavored to restore these sketches to 
their original significance, but there are some narratives which 
hardly admit of such treatment. We will give two of them 
as specimens. They differ from the stories we have already 
examined, inasmuch as the others simply speak of all kinds 
of miraculous healings, whereas these two show that the 
Christians actually went so far as to ascribe raisings from the 

1 1 Corinthians i. 22, 23. 2 gee p. 269. 

3 Matthew xii. 23; compare pp. 38-40. * gee pp. 131, 136. 



286 JEWISH THIRST FOR THE MARVELLOUS. 

dead to their Master. Jesus did indeed declare that he called 
the (spiritually) dead to life again ; 1 but these stories owe 
their origin not so much to a misconception of this saying, as 
to the simple love of the marvellous which could not bear the 
Christ to be outdone by the prophets Elijah and Elisha. 2 It 
is possible, however, that Jesus may on some occasion have 
entered a house of mourning and endeavored to restrain the 
violent demonstrations of grief, and to banish the sorrow 
without hope, by* the consoling assurance that death was but 
a sleep which a glorious waking would succeed. Some such 
saying may have determined the form of the following story : 
A certain man called Jair, the chief of the city* or the syna- 
gogue, once came to Jesus and bowed down to the earth be- 
fore him, passionately entreating him to return with him to his 
house, where his only child, a daughter twelve years old, lay 
dying. If only he would lay* his hand upon her she would 
recover and live ! Jesus yielded to his entreaty and went 
with him, accompanied by the Twelve. On their way they 
met some people who came from Jair's house and said, " Trou- 
ble the Master no more, for your child is dead." But when 
Jesus heard the message he cheered the disconsolate father 
with the words, " Fear nothing ! Only* believe ! " When they 
came to the house of mourning, Jesus allowed none but Peter, 
James, and John to go in with him. They found the hired 
mourners and flute-players already* busy*, while all the inmates 
of the house and the relatives of the child joined them in 
raising the extravagant signs of grief which were customary 
among the Jews. But the lamentations of all these people, 
as they* wept and wailed aloud, offended Jesus. As soon as 
he entered he commanded them to be silent, and said : " Why- 
are you weeping and wailing? The child is not dead but 
sleeping." They* laughed him to scorn ; but he had them all 
sent out, and with the parents and his three friends only en- 
tered the room where the girl was lying. Without pausing a 
moment he took her by* the hand and said, tk Talitha cumi ! " 
that is, "Maiden, arise!" Upon this the spirit returned to 
her body, and she raised herself and stood up. Picture the 
joy* and amazement of the parents ! Jesus told them to give 
her something to eat, and strictly commanded them not to let 
any one know what had happened. 8 

1 Matthew xi. 5; compare p. 254. 

2 1 Kin^s xvii. 17-24; 2 Kings iv. 18-37; compare vol. ii. chaps, xn., xiii. 
pp. 1 38-149. 

s Matthew ix. 18. 19, 23-26 (Mark v. 22-24, 35 43; Luke viii. 41, 42, 49-56). 



JEWISH THIRST FOR THE MARVELLOUS. 287 

On another occasion, as he was going to the village of Nain, 
accompanied b} T his disciples and a crowd of* followers, he 
met a funeral procession close b} r the gate. The only son of 
a widow was being carried to his grave, and the sympathy 
naturally felt for his mother had attracted a number of the 
villagers to the procession. Now when the Lord saw her he 
was deeply moved, and said to her, " Weep no more ! " Then 
he went up to the bier and laid his hand on it, upon which the 
bearers stood still and Jesus cried, "Young man, arise!" 
and at once the dead man stood up and began to speak ; and 
Jesus gave him to his mother. All present were overwhelmed 
with awe and praised God. "A mighty prophet has risen 
among us!" they cried. " God has graciously remembered 
his people ! " and all Judaea and the whole countiy round rang 
with the name of Jesus. 1 

These stories are not without artistic merit, but from a re- 
ligious point of view the} T have little or no value. To trans- 
late a word of the Holy Spirit into a material prodig} 7 is 
any thing but a deed of faith. For the rest, the gradual 
heightening of the marvel is obvious. First we have a girl, 
who has but just expired ; then a young man, who is on the 
point of being buried. Before long it was asserted that Jesus 
had restored a body to life after it had been buried four daj T s 
and was alread} T decomposing ! 2 But this latter stoiy be- 
longs to a different class, and the two we have given already 
are quite enough. We shall not stay to indicate the parallels 
between these narratives and the raisings from the dead by 
Elijah and Elisha ; for our only purpose in giving them at all 
was to illustrate the spirit of the age. If the Christians could 
not believe in Jesus as the Christ, or at least could not justify 
their belief without producing such stories as these, we can 
well understand the reproach which a writer of the second 
century makes Jesus aim at his fellow-countrymen and con- 
temporaries ; "Unless you see signs and wonders, you do 
not believe." 3 

In connection with Paul's declaration given above, these 
words might be paraphrased: "The reason why the Jews 
never believed in Jesus was that they never saw him do signs 
and wonders." 

We have now pointed out and described the enemy with 
which Jesus had to wrestle, and can go on to the circumstances 
under which the deadly encounter took place. That Jesus 

1 Luke vii. 11-17. 2 John xi. 3 j oun i v . 18. 



288 



JEWISH THIRST FOR THE MARVELLOUS. 



should be required to show " a sign " was but the natural con- 
sequence of the general want of all real sense of truth. 

Our accounts are so wofulry confused that it is impossible 
to say with certainty whence the demand came, whether it 
was repeated more than once, and if so what was its special 
significance on each occasion. As to the first point, however, 
we may be tolerably certain that the demand came from the 
usual opponents of Jesus, and not from the people gerei^aiiy. 
The Pharisees, then, or more especially the Pharisaic Scribes, 
demanded a sign of him ; for they felt sure he would net be 
able to give it, and so they hoped to drive him into a strait. 
Matthew tells us that they made the demand on two occasions. 
Now, as a rule, when we find the same thing twice in the 
same Gospel, we simply lay the repetition to the Evangelist's 
account, and suppose that he had found two more or less dis- 
crepant versions of the same affair, and had accepted them 
as referring to distinct events. But in the present case we 
cannot do so, for on comparing Matthew with the other two 
Gospels, and observing the great difference between the an- 
swers of Jesus on the two occasions, we are compelled to dis- 
tinguish between them. But since Matthew has thrown his 
materials together without regard to their true connection, 
our safest course will be to lay all the stress upon the answers 
of Jesus and endeavor to make out from them the special 
bearing of the questions. By this means we arrive at some 
such conception of what took place as follows : — 

Some time ago the Pharisees had endeavored to bring 
Jesus into a strait by the question, tk When is the kingdom 
of God coming ? " Surely he who had announced the king- 
dom as near at hand from his very first appearance, he whose 
preaching had such constant reference to its advent, might 
fairly be supposed to know when it was coming. " The 
kingdom of God," answered Jesus, " comes in no visible 
form ; and no one can say, ' See ! here it is ! ' or ' See ! it is 
there ! ' for behold the kingdom of God is in the midst of 
you." This answer was evidently based on a misunderstand- 
ing, probably an intentional one. The " coming " of which 
the Pharisees spoke was the glorious establishment of the 
Messianic kingdom, whereas the answer of Jesus referred to 
its gradual preparation. The formation of a society of the 
future citizens was itself the "coming of the kingdom;" 1 
and, since that was the only sense in which men had any 
thing to do with it, those who sought for the salvation to 

l See p. 255. 



JEWISH THIRST FOR THE MARVELLOUS. 28i* 

come had only to attach themselves to Jesus. The complete 
and final triumph might be safely left to God. 

Of course tins answer did not in the least degree satisfy 
the questioners ; so they presently came to him again with a 
more direct request : "If the kingdom of God is, as 3*011 say, 
close at hand, show us at least some one of the signs in 
heaven which are to precede the Messianic age." What could 
appear more reasonable than such a request? Every one 
knew that the end of the present age was to be heralded by 
fearful signs in heaven. The light of the sun was to be put 
out, the moon turned to blood, the stars robbed of their 
brightness, and many other fearful signs were to be shown ! x 
If only one of these could be produced, they would be con- 
tent ; but if not, they must decline to surrender themselves 
to an idle joy which must end in a bitter disappointment : 
and surely Jesus himself could hardly expect them to believe 
in him on his bare word ! Jesus saw at once the extreme 
difficult}* of his position. ''-Do you want," he replied with 
some acerbity, " a sign in the sk}* that the kingdom of God 
is indeed at hand? When the sky is red at even you say, 
' It will be fine to-morrow, as those evening tints declare.' 
If the sky is a lurid red in the early morning, you say, 
' There will be a storm to-da}*, for the clouds are threaten- 
ing.' You know well enough how to read the face of the 
sky, and can you not read the signs of the times?" Or, as 
Luke reports the words : " When you see a little cloud ris- 
ing in the West, you say at once, ' It is going to rain*.' And 
so it does. And when the south wind rises, you say 5 - It 
will be hot to-day.' And so it is. You hypocrites ! you 
can discern the face of earth and heaven, why can you not 
discern the times?" By the " signs of the times" he proba- 
bly meant the remarkable spiritual signs which distinguished 
the age, rather than the deep political distress of the people. ' 2 
Had he explained himself more fully, he would have pointed 
to one clear and unmistakable sign in the impetuous longing 
for the kingdom of God which had prevailed ever since John 
began to preach ; and more especially to his own work and 
teaching, and the result they had produced. And again, was 
not the conversion of " sinners," and the religious movement 
among the " peoples of the land," a fulfilment of the ancient 
prophecies that spoke of the salvation to come ? But such 

1 See, for example, Joel ii. 10, 31, iii. 15 ; Matthew xxiv. 29, 30; Acts ii. 19, 
20; Revelation vi. 12, 13, xvi. 18, et seq. 

2 See pp. 'J6-U9. 

VOL. III. 13 



290 JEWISH THIRST FOR THE MARVELLOUS. 

facts as these, though proof enough to Jesus that he had not 
misinterpreted the voice of his own heart, 1 were beneath the 
notice of the Scribes. Indeed, in some instances they were 
a distinct source of offence to the "clean." Consequently 
his opponents were not even aware that Jesus had wrested 
their weapon from their hands and turned it against their 
own bosoms. And he on his side, knowing that their hearts 
and consequently their eyes were closed against him, de- 
parted from them rather than expose himself to fruitless con- 
troversy and further questioning. 

But the Pharisees did not intend to leave him at peace so 
long as they still met him on their way. If he could not give 
an}' guarantee for the fulfilment of the beautiful promises he 
made, let him at any rate produce his credentials and show 
his own personal right to speak! "Master," they said to 
him on another occasion, " we would gladly see a sign from 
you." They meant by a sign some miracle to prove that 
God had sent him. Here, if any where, the}' seemed to be 
distinctly within their rights ; and here they could rely on 
having the people completely on their side, if only out of 
curiosity. The case was this : Jesus professed to be a 
prophet, and as such he was reverenced by the masses who 
honored him so highly. Now the}', the Pharisees, declared 
that they were ready and anxious to acknowledge him them- 
selves, 'X he would but satisfy their reasonable demand for 
proofs There had never been a prophet, they urged, who 
had n*yo performed miracles. For several centuries there had 
been no prophets at all, and generations ago their ancestors 
had already begun to look forward eagerly to the coming of 
a messenger from God who could remove their difficulties ; 2 
and now a man from Nazareth came and professed to be such 
a messenger, — was it any thing out of the way to request 
him to substantiate his claims ? Was Jesus baffled by the 
Pharisees' request? No ; but he was filled with the deepest 
indignation by their dulness of perception and blindness to 
the light of truth. Mark, who confuses this with the pre- 
vious request, tells us that Jesus heaved a deep sigh that 
rose from his inmost soul, and said : " Why does this gen- 
eration want a sign? I tell you, of a truth, if a sign be given 
to this generation — ! " This broken form of words was the 
strongest mode of asserting that a thing would never happen. 
Matthew and Luke give the answer at greater length in the 

1 Compare pp. 254, 255 ; and Matthew xxiv. 32, 3-3. 

2 Compare Psalm lxxiv. 9; 1 Maccabees ix. 27, iv. 46, xiv. 41. 



JEWISH THIRST FOR THE MARVELLOUS. 291 

form of a rebuke introduced b} r an absolute refusal: "A 
wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, and no 
sign shall be given it but the sign of the prophet Jona ! " 
Jesus denounces those who ask for a sign as men who show 
their moral degradation and want of true piety bj r their hard- 
ness of heart and utter incapacity to judge of the truth, and 
yet more in their evil design of drawing the people away 
from him by teaching them to suspect the preacher who had 
no credentials. This appeal to the " sign of Jona" implies a 
heav} r threat ; but neither it nor the verses that follow are 
much to the purpose here. AVe shall discuss and explain 
them in the following chapter, when we find Jesus, disap- 
pointed in his own people, turning his eyes to the heathen 
world. 

At present we need only remark that this demand for a 
sign, though made in the politest form, was on both occa- 
sions a most damaging method of attack ; for the opponents 
of Jesus had public opinion entirety on their side. This 
completely explains the violence with which Jesus repelled 
the attack. In this matter he could not appeal to the people 
from their leaders, 1 for all were alike infected with this thirst 
for marvels. Jesus asked his brother men to believe in him 
because he spoke the truth, and the truth must and should 
be recognized b} T everj 7 heart. But reason and conscience 
are the organs by which truth is perceived, and their devel- 
opment in Palestine at this period was so imperfect and one- 
sided that they could no longer be trusted. Jesus had only 
too much reason to utter the solemn warning, "Look to it 
that the light which is in you be not darkness ! " 2 

Had Jesus been a man of brilliant personal gifts, such as 
permanently fascinate and carry away the multitudes, the 
people would have clung to him still. But there was nothing 
sufficiently distinguished or uncommon about him. For a 
time the novelty of his mission, the enthusiasm with which 
he spoke and acted, — in a word, his moral force, — created 
some excitement ; but this first impression gradually passed 
away, and at last every one became accustomed to him, 
wanted something fresh, and demanded some more startling 
sign than the occasional cure of a single demoniac. And in 
proportion as this indifference or unbelief increased, Jesus on 
his side raised his demands and adopted a tone of authority 
and an attitude of command unknown before. And so the 
alienation grew. A brief nicker of enthusiasm when he set 
1 Compare pp. 278, 280. 2 gee p. 159. 



2i»2 JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 

out for Jerusalem aud awakened fresh hopes, a greater cold- 
ness than ever when those hopes were disappointed , — such 
was the inevitable future that lay before him. 

Jesus never conquered this passion for miracles. At the 
cosi, of his life he triumphed over many obstacles ; but this 
hostile power, this faithless demand for signs, soon crept into 
his own commuuit3 T . We have seen already how that same 
want of spiritual perception which contributed so powerfully 
to his fall threatened to undermine his cause when he was 
lead. 

Jesus was well aware that his great foe was this incapacity 
to perceive the truth. The same want of faith blocked up 
his path which had poured out the blood of the ancient 
prophets. He saw more and more clearly that he too must 
share the common fate of prophets, and be rejected by the 
men of his own generation. He declared it plainly enough 
at Jerusalem : 1 — 

" Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you 
build the graves of the prophets and adorn the tombs of 
the righteous, and say, ' If we had lived in the days of our 
fathers we would not have been guilty with them of the blood 
of the prophets.' So you yourselves bear witness that } t ou 
are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Then do 
you fill up your fathers' measure ! " 



Chapter XXIV. 

JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 

Matthew XX. 1-16, XII. 38-42, XXII. 1-14 ; Luke X. 25-37, XIII. 
28-30, VII. 1-10, XVII. 11-19. 2 

THE apostolic age was torn by a fierce controversy as to 
whether those who were not Jews might be admitted 
into the community of the Christ, and so into the Messianic 
kingdom, without being first circumcised and otherwise incor- 
porated into the people of Israel. Now, in this dispute, both 
parties appealed directly to their common Master in confirma- 
tion of their passionate assertions. Which of the two had 

i Matthew xxiii. 29-32. 

2 Matthew viii. 5-13 ; Luke xi. 29-32, xiv. 15-24. 



JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 203 

misunderstood him, and which was in the right? After what 
we have already seen of Jesus we cannot be at a loss for an 
answer a single moment. When Jesus himself transgressed 
the laws that referred to clean and unclean food, to ceremo- 
nial purity, and other such things ; when he declared that 
they were of no importance, and robbed the external Jewish 
religion in general of its binding authority, — then he threw 
down the partition wall between Israel and "the peoples." 
Nay more, his God was not the King of Israel, but the ben- 
efactor and the father of all mankind, even the idolaters 
themselves ; and he required his followers to love the enemies 
of their faith, and pra} T for their heathen persecutors. In 
1'act, the whole question was virtually, or rather practically, 
decided by his coming to make sinners, who stood on the 
same footing as heathen, members of the kingdom of God. 
The onl} r question that can still be asked is whether he shrank 
from the consequences, obvious as they were, of his own 
principles. When he came into contact with heathen, as he 
must have done in Galilee with its heathen surroundings a.Tid 
its mingled population, did he shrink back? If not, how was 
it possible for the Jewish-Christians to appeal to him with 
perfect confidence? 

If we look to the Gospels for a solution, we find the various 
accounts so completely contradictory that we are simply be- 
wildered. On the one hand, the Twelve are strictly enjoined 
to beware above all things of turning to the heathen or Sa- 
maritans, and Jesus rejects a suppliant heathen woman with 
the words, " It is not right to take the bread of the childrm 
[Israelites] and throw it to the clogs [heathen.] " 1 How could 
a Paulinist call Jesus ' b Lord " after this ? But elsewhere we find 
it repeatedly declared, and expressly urged upon the Apostles 
personally, that the gospel must be preached all over the 
world as a witness to all peoples. 2 How could the faithful 
friends of Jesus so completely forget this command? It is 
easy to see, however, that Jesus cannot really have said these 
things, and that they were only put into his mouth afterwards 
in consequence of the dispute itself, and at a time when it 
was raging. Some scholars have even gone so far as to say 
that, since the Apostles confined their activity to Israel, none 
of the sayings ascribed to Jesus which seem to favor the 
heathen can be genuine. But we have no right to go so far 
as this, for we know that the Twelve were not always the 

i See pp. 182, 184, and chap. iii. p. 502. 

2 Matthew xxiv. 14, xxvi. 13, xxviii. 19 ; Mark xvi. 15; Luke xxiv. 47 



2J)4 JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 

host of hearers, and never fully grasped their Master's free 
ideas. Besides, the}* actually did recognize, or at least tol- 
erate, the preaching of Heathen-Christianity. 1 Ail we can 
be sure of is that they never received any definite command 
to go and preach to the heathen. On the other hand, it is 
equally certain that words of such rigid Jewish exclusiveness 
as those cited above never passed the lips of Jesus. 

The question still remains, How are we to explain the fact 
that the orthodox members of the first Christian communities 
conscientiously believed themselves to be acting in the Mas- 
ter's spirit? Had he never expressed himself distinctly on 
the subject of the admission of the heathen ? We must bear in 
mind that the question was not whether the heathen were to 
be admitted at all. No one disputed that ; and rnany of the 
prophets long ago had foretold the conversion of the heathen 
to faith in Israel's God. 2 It was a question of the terms of 
admission. Now Jesus had never distinctly expressed an 
opinion on this subject, simply because he had never thought 
of any definite terms of admission at all, and the question 
h?,d not arisen during the brief period of his public ministry. 
His conduct towards the publicans may seem conclusive to 
an unprejudiced observer ; but the Jewish-Christians perhaps 
reflected that, after all, even these lost ones were sons of 
Abraham, and were not quite the same as positive heathen. 
And then principles, however clear and definite, can only 
appeal successfully to minds in sympathy with them ; and it 
was impossible to produce an}' definite action or express com- 
mand of Jesus with which to silence the champions of Israel's 
exclusive privileges ; for, from the nature of the case, Jesus 
had confined his personal activity to his own nation, — besides 
which he cherished a very natural partiality for his own coun- 
try and his own people. Finally, the heathen world was 
really at that time far below the moral and religious level of 
Jewish society ; so that Jesus, however read} 7 to acknowledge 
all that was good in the heathen, yet warned his followers, 
from time to time, against their worldliness and want of faith. 8 
On the other hand, the heathen with whom he came in con- 
tact, and who impressed him favorably with the spiritual 
capabilities of the heathen world, had doubtless already em- 
braced the Jewish religion more or less completely. At least 
so we should gather, not so much from their being settled 

1 See pp. 18, 19. 

2 For example, Isaiah ii. 2-4, lxvi. 23 ; Michah iv. 2, et seq. 
8 Matthew v. 47, vi. 32. 



JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 295 

in the territory of Israel, as from their approaching Jesus 
of their own accord. His dealings with the heathen, then, 
ma} 7 have given him the opportunity of shaming and threat- 
ening his own countiwmen, without, after all, conclusively 
proving to the Jewish-Christians that a heathen might hope 
to become a member of the kingdom of God without first 
turning Jew. 

We shall presently return for a moment to this point. 
Another question is, how far the ideas of Jesus with regard 
to the relations of the kingdom of God to the heathen and 
Samaritans were modified in the course of his public career? 
Here, too, the Gospels leave us in the lurch by their neglect 
of the order of time. But we ma}' remedj r the defect to some 
extent ourselves, for it stands almost to reason that he could 
not have begun b} T including the heathen in his surve}^ ; at 
any rate, he cannot at first have expected them to take the 
place of his own countrymen. Let us tr} T , therefore, to form 
some conception of the successive stages of conviction on this 
point which Jesus went through under his varying experi- 
ences. In doing so we shall not alwa} T s mention the Sama- 
ritans separately, but shall use the word "heathen" as 
including them, for we know that in the e3 T es of a Jew the 
two were on precisely the same footing. 

In the first place, then, we may safety start from the fact 
that Jesus — himself an Israelite in heart and soul — began 
his work among his people with a view to hastening the Messi- 
anic kingdom ; that is to say, with a view to helping on the 
realization of a purely Israelitish ideal for the benefit of Is- 
rael. Like the prophets, from whom he borrowed this con- 
ception, he thought in the first place of the salvation of his 
own people, and originall}' the work of redemption which he 
personally hoped to accomplish did not extend beyond them. 
But even then he believed, in common again with his great 
predecessors, that in the Messianic age Israel would be the 
light of the world and the teacher of the peoples, who in their 
turn would share all its privileges. From the very first Jesus 
was absolutely free from the narrow exclusiveness of his con- 
temporaries, — an exclusiveness which sprang from national 
pride and religious rancor, and found utterance in anti- 
cipations of vengeance and unwortlry conceptions of God. 
Two parables are still preserved which contain an em- 
phatic protest against this exclusive spirit. The first 
most likely belongs to the earlier half of his career, and 



296 JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 

is an emblematic history of the kingdom of heaven. It runs 
is follows : — 

Autumn had come, and had brought the grape-harvest with 
it. It was a time of general rejoicing, as the grape-gatherers 
carried the clusters in baskets, with shouts of jo} T , to be trod- 
den out at the wine-press. It was a time of rejoicing, but a 
time of the busiest labor too. The owner of a certain vine- 
yard, seeing that his grapes were ripe and ought to be gath- 
ered without delay, went out at sunrise to engage laborers for 
the work. He had soon secured a number of men at the usual 
rate of wages, one denarius (about eightpence) for the day, 
and he sent them to his bailiff who set them to work. But 
he soon saw that more hands were wanted ; so about nine 
o'clock, when a quarter of the da}' was gone, he went into the 
market-place again, and there he found some laborers waiting 
with their implements to see if an}^ one would employ them. 
So he engaged them too, but without making any special 
agreement about wages. He merely said, ;t Go to my vine- 
yard, and I will pay you fairly." Meanwhile the sun had 
climbed the sl\y and was now blazing clown upon the laborers 
from the mid-heavens, and the work was heavy and the hands 
still short, and all the grapes must be gathered that da} r , or it 
would be too late. So the master, who came now and then 
to see how the work was going on, went to the market-place 
again at midda} T , and yet again at three in the afternoon, and 
each time he engaged more laborers, promising fair wages, 
but not stating the amount, and sending them to his bailiff 
who was anxious^ expecting help. At last, when the sun 
was drawing to the west, at five o'clock in the evening, the 
master saw some laborers still standing in the market-place. 
" Why have you been standing here all da} T doing nothing?" 
he asked. " Because no one has engaged us," they answered 
gloomily. So he took them also into his service, though he 
said nothing about wages for the one hour left for work ; l and 
they came in fresh at the close of the clay, and helped to finish 
the work. 

The harvest was all got in, and evening came. Then the 
master told his bailiff to pay the men, " beginning with those 
that had come last, and going through to the first." So those 
that were set to work at five o'clock came first, and each of 
them received a denarius. The men who had been at work 
since six in the morning now expected to get more ; but they 
were disappointed, for the}' too received a denarius each. 

1 After an amended text. 



JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 297 

They took the money with evident discontent, and went at 
once to the master to complain: "These last have only 
worked one hour, and you have paid them as much as us who 
have borne the toil and the heat of the whole da} T ! " But the 
master answered the spokesman with quiet dignity: "My 
friend, I have done }'Ou no wrong. Did we not fix your 
wages at a denarius? Take it and go home. If I choose to 
give these last as much as 3-011, have I not a right to do what 
I like with my own money? Why should my liberality offend 
you?" 

Matthew is the only Evangelist who gives this parable. 
He inserts it just after a conversation between Jesus and the 
Twelve that ends with the words, " Many that are last shall 
be first, and first last ; " and at the end of the parable he re- 
peats the words in a slightly different form: "So the last 
shall be first, and the first last." It is evident, therefore, that 
he inserted the parable here because he supposed it to be an 
elaboration of this saying. In other words, he understood 
both the parable and the aphorism to be directed against the 
Apostles, and especially Peter. Though the}' had followed 
Jesus from the very first, and had left every thing for his 
sake, yet they would have no advantage over the disciples 
who had joined him later, who were joining him now, who 
should join him in the future up to the last moment before 
the consummation of the kingdom of God. Nay, the}' might 
very possibly be ranked below them ! But the parable is not 
correctly interpreted, nor is its true connection given here ; 
for it does not really refer to the disciples, nor does it deal 
like the aphorism with a case in which the last are put before 
the first, but with one in which all are made equal. What, 
then, is its true signification? Here, as elsewhere, 1 the vine- 
yard typifies the preparation and the growth of the kingdom 
of God. The owner is God. The laborers summoned in the 
morning are the Jews; the others are "the nations." 2 In 
the envy of the first laborers Jesus rebukes the proud delusion 
of his countrymen that they, who had first arrived at a knowl- 
edge of God and of his salvation, would take the first rank 
and be clothed with the highest dignity in the Messianic king- 
dom, while the heathen would only be admitted to subordi- 
nate places, 3 and their conversion in point of fact would only 
serve to exalt the triumph of Israel. This national pride and 

1 Isaiab v. 1 ; Matthew xxi. 28, 33 (Mark xii. 1 ; Luke xx. 9). 

* 2 Compare Luke xiii. 30. 

3 Compare Epkesians ii. 11, 12, 19; Revelation vii. 4, 9, xxii. 2. 

13* 



298 JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN 

envy, says Jesus, God will put to shame. Thus understood, 
the parable speaks for itself, and we need only remark that 
there is no trace as yet of the later thought that the heathen 
would be put before the Jews, still less that the latter would 
be shut out altogether. All that is here asserted is the equal- 
ity of the two, which no one can help seeing follow cd di- 
rectly from the principles of Jesus, from his faith in God and 
his views of human nature. 

The other stoiy to which we referred speaks without meta- 
phors ; and in it, therefore, Jesus still more plainly rebukes 
the national and religious rancor of his countrymen. It is 
known as the parable of " the Good Samaritan ; " and Luke, 
who is the only one that gives it, introduces it as follows : — 

On a certain da} T a Jewish lawyer came to Jesus, intending 
to entangle him in his own words, and said : " Master ! what 
must I do to inherit eternal life ? " What could be more natu- 
ral than to ask the preacher of the kingdom of God how one 
could be certain to gain admission into it? But Jesus saw 
his design ; ani since the man had made a study of the Law, 
and was not so "gnorant as to need instruction, he made him 
answer his own question. "What does the Law say?" he 
replied, — "what does it require?" The law3 T er answered 
immediately by citing a text from Deuteronomy, and another 
from Leviticus : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, 
and with all thy understanding ; and thou shalt love thy neigh- 
bor as thyself." His insight secured the unreserved approval 
of Jesus. " Well said ! " he cried. " Do this and you shall 
live." But the other, to show that he had not asked an idle 
question, said, "Yes, but who is m} T neighbor?" Upon 
which Jesus began the following stoiy, by way of answer : 

An Israelite, on his wa} T home from the City of the Temple, 
was travelling alone to Jericho. He had alread} T passed 
Bethanj 7 some time, and was in the middle of the fearful 
desert, with its barren rocks and deep precipitous ravines, 
when he paid a heavy price for his rashness in making the 
dangerous journey through this inhospitable region without 
any escort or armed companions ; for a band of brigands 
leaped from behind the rocks, overpowered all resistance in 
a moment, hurled him from his mule to the ground, disarmed 
and stripped him to the skin. Then they left him heavily 
wounded, stretched bleeding and senseless on the ground, a 
certain prey to death unless speed y help arrived. He was 
not even able to cry for help, and indeed, in that dismal 



JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 299 

wilderness, he would have had small chance of being heard at 
best. But see ! a traveller from Jerusalem happens to come 
by that same way. lie is a priest. He cannot fail to pass 
the man. He sees him tying there half dead, turns his ass to 
the other sid^ of the way, and hurries on. Terror sank into 
his very heaii when he saw such a sight in such a place, and 
knew for certain that robbers must be near ! — how could he 
stay to help the victim? But not long afterwards the sound 
of hoofs might again be heard, and another traveller came by. 
His head-dress proclaimed him a Levite ; and, as he drew 
near and came to the place, he looked at the wounded man, 
and then hurried forward on the other side of the way. Like 
the priest, he shrank from exposing himself to danger for the 
poor chance of rescuing a man he had never seen before. 
Was all hope lost ? Not yet ; for another traveller drew near. 
It was no one who had been visiting the temple this time. It 
was a Samaritan. He was going on his ordinary business 
round, and was hurrying on his way when he saw the misera- 
ble sufferer stretched upon the ground. He stayed his mule, 
and though he saw that the man was a Jew, yet his pity, 
once stirred, would not suffer him to leave him there. So he 
dismounted, knelt down by the wounded man to see if he was 
still alive, and when he found that he was, determined to run 
the risk ! The ordinary equipment of a traveller enabled him 
to wipe and cleanse the wounds, and make a little salve out 
of wine and oil. So he dressed and bound up the wounds, 
and gently raised the man and placed him on his mule, which 
he led by the reins that its paces might be as smooth as pos- 
sible. They were fortunate enough not to be surprised by the 
robbers again, and arrived in safet}' at an inn, where guests 
were received without distinction for a small payment, and at 
which the Samaritan was in the habit of staying. Here the 
wounded man was laid on a bed, and his friend provided him 
with every thing he needed, and stayed with him that evening 
and the following night. Then he was obliged to go on his 
way, and his patient already appeared to be out of danger. 
But he was determined not to do things by halves ; so in the 
morning, when he was ready to start, he called the innkeeper 
and paid him two denarii in advance on behalf of the Jew, 
for he had been robbed of all he possessed, and consequently 
could not pay for himself. ' ' Take every possible care of 
him," said the Samaritan ; " and you need not be afraid of 
going beyond what I have deposited, for if you do I will pay 
the balance when next I come this way." Then he continued 
his journey. 



3U0 JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 

"Now which of these three," said Jesus to the lawyer, 
"Priest, Levite, or Samaritan, should } t ou say was a neigh- 
bor to the man who was attacked by the robbers?" There 
could be only one answer ; but the lawyer could not bring 
himself to pronounce the hated word " Samaritan" with com- 
mendation, so he answered, with some repugnance, "The 
one that took pky on him." " Do }*ou go and do the same," 
said Jesus ; and so the conversation ended. This was the 
practical solution of the abstract question, " Who is nry neigh- 
bor?" Jesus compelled the haughty Jew to allow that the 
most despised and hated enemy of his people and his faith 
might be his neighbor, and then dismissed him with the ex- 
hortation to forget all differences of race and of religion, and 
by showing true mercy to make himself the neighbor of others. 
Ask rather, "Who is not my neighbor?" Whoever helps 
you and loves you is your neighbor. Do } T ou, then, in your 
turn, regard jxmrself as the neighbor of all, without distinc- 
tion, whom you can help or bless. 

This parable gives us no right to ascribe to Jesus the para- 
doxical opinion that " all men are our neighbors," but it shows 
us very clearly that any one may he our neighbor, and that 
true humanity throws down all walls of partition between man 
and man. But there are several considerations which justify 
us in questioning whether Luke gives us the parable in its 
true connection. In the first place, it fits in somewhat awk- 
wardly with what precedes and follows, and the context has 
evidently been affected by another narrative. 1 And, in the 
second place, the first two Gospels give a much more proba- 
ble account of an interview between Jesus and a lawyer 
which Luke appears to have worked up in this passage. Ac- 
cording to them the question is put in a much more definite 
form, and it is Jesus himself who joins the two texts together 
and gives them out as the essence of the Law. 2 Indeed, it is 
little short of absurd to ascribe to this Jew so profound and 
original a view of the question- We may, therefore, assume 
that the parable is out of place as Luke gives it, and that it 
was meant originally to show that true humanity and good- 
ness raise even the most despised of heretics, even a Samari- 
tan, above the most religious Jew, above the sacred persons 
of the priest or Levite. The parable shows small affection 
for the servants of the temple, and contains a severe rebuke 
of the Jewish spirit of exclusiveness. 



1 Compare Luke x. 25, 26, with xviii. 18, 20 

2 Matthew xxii. 35 ff. (Mark xii. 28 ff.). 



JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 301 

In the preceding chapters we have seen repeatedly and in 
detail how bitterly Jesus was disappointed in his expectations 
of his people. Their absolute incapacity to receive his gospel 
became constantly clearer. But to the very last he went on 
loving his country as passionately as ever, and straining all his 
powers to rescue it. Nor was his estimate of the religious 
privileges of Israel in any degree lowered. The very forms 
under which he spoke of the ideal future remained intensely 
Israelitish. Take this threat, for instance : — 

" I tell yon that many shall come from the East and from 
the West, and shall lie down with Abraham and Isaac and 
Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the 
kingdom shall be cast into the darkness without. There 
shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth ! ' 

Here Jesus is speaking of the great Messianic feast ; 1 and 
the names of those who occupy the chief places show that it 
is prepared especially for the Israelites. Accordingly the 
Israelites are described as the children or heirs of the king- 
dom, — its intended or appointed subjects. Now Luke very 
properly assigns these words to a late period of the life of 
Jesus, and brings them into connection with a rebuke of 
Jewish pride ; but since this expression, u children of the king- 
dom" as applied to the Jews was not at all to his taste, he 
omitted it. He gives the passage thus: "There shall be 
wailing and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and 
Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, 
and you yourselves are thrust out." 2 But even this was not 
enough for a certain sectarian editor of this Gospel, who 
pruned it in the second century of all expressions favorable 
to the Jews. He substituted LL all the righteous " in this pas- 
sage for the patriarehs and prophets. On the other hand, 
Matthew has preserved the words in the most original form, 
but he has inserted them in the middle of a miraculous story, 
and has quite wrongly assigned them to an early period in the 
career of Jesus, before he could have had all the mournful 
experience of his people which dictated such expressions, — 
nay, at the very moment he was indirectly sounding the praise 
of Israel ! 8 

Jesus constantly repeated this threat with ever-increasing 
emphasis, sometimes under the same imagery more elabo- 
rately worked out, and sometimes under other forms. The 
Israelites would be cut off by their own guilt from the salva- 

1 Compare Revelation xix. 9. 2 Luke xiii. 28. 

8 See pp. 303, 309. 



302 JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 

tion prepared for them, the}' would bitterly lament their un- 
belief when it was too late, and their places would be taken 
by heathen from every quarter under heaven. 1 Even John 
had sternly warned his hearers not to trust in their descent 
from Abraham. 2 And now Jesus found in the Holy Scrip- 
tures many and many a lamentation over the stubbornness, 
the hypocrisy, the dulness of heart with which Israel had re- 
jected the Lord and his messengers, and man}" an example of 
a deeper longing for salvation and a greater readiness to re- 
ceive it on the part of the heathen. 3 And was it not a fact that 
sinners, who were half heathen, already pressed into the king- 
dom and put the pious to shame? A little more delay, and 
their sentence would be passed. And as the Master's disap- 
pointment grew, his warnings became darker, and the threat- 
ening tone of his discourses rose ; while the sense of offended 
dignity, and the just pride of the rejected prophet heightened 
rather than toned down the personal claims he put forward. 
Listen to the reply he made when told that if he wanted 
people to believe in him he must first prove his claims b}' a 
miracle : 4 — 

"A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, and 
no sign shall be given it except the sign of the prophet Jona. 
On the day of judgment the men of Nineveh shall stand be- 
side this generation before the seat of judgment, and shall 
condemn it by their example ; for they repented at the 
preaching of Jona, and I tell you there is more than Jona 
here ! The Queen of the South shall rise up on the day of 
judgment by this generation, and shall condemn it by her 
example ; for she came from the end of the world to hear 
the wisdom of Solomon, and I tell you there is more than 
Solornon here ! " 

What are we to understand by this " sign of Jona " that 
w T as triumphantly to vindicate the mission of Jesus? The 
context indicates that the sign of Solomon might be substi- 
tuted ; but a prophet and a whole nation furnish a better 
parallel than a sage and a single woman to Jesus and his 
contemporaries. 6 It appears from the explanation that fol- 
lows that Jesus meant to say that heathen were converted by 
the preaching of Jona. This case stands alone in the history 

1 Lukexiii. 29. 2 See p. 106. 

3 Matthew xix. 8, xv. 7, xiii. 14, v. 12, xxiii. 37, xi. 21-24, xii. 41, 42 ; 
Luke iv. 25-27. 

4 See pp. 289 f. 

6 Compare v\>] ii. chap. vii. p. 69, and vol. ii. chap. xix. pp. 525-527. 



JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. o03 

of the prophets, and may well be called " the sign." In the 
same way this generation, alread}' condemned by these exam- 
ples from the olden time, must consent to see the gospel given 
to the heathen and received by them with regenerating faith. 
So should the preaching of Jona be a type or sign of the 
preaching of Jesus. Most certainly Jesus did not mean, as 
Matthew would have it, that he himself would spend three 
days in the world below between his death and his resurrec- 
tion, just as Jona had spent three days in the belly of the 
monster of the deep. Such an explanation is simply absurd 
in view of the words themselves, the context, the speaker, 
the hearers, and the narrative referred to. But neither is 
Luke correct in supposing the meaning to be that Jesus him- 
self was a sign to his people and his age, just as Jona was a 
sign to the JNinevites. This interpretation is not supported 
by the context, and is decidedly obscure ; for it would imply 
that Jona and Jesus were signs of the power of the word, or 
of the mercy of God, or something similar, all which would 
be quite inappropriate here. This reference to the Ninevites 
and the Queen of Sheba immediately calls to mind the simi- 
lar utterances which we have ahead}' heard from Jesus. For 
instance, he reminded his hearers, on some occasion which we 
can no longer identif}', how Elijah and Elisha, at the command 
of the Most High, had helped heathen rather than the people 
of their own country, — when the one went to a Phoenician 
widow and the other healed a SjTian captain. And again, 
he placed the luxurious and licentious Tyre and Sidon before 
Bethsaida and Chorazin, and Sodom, the very type of infamy, 
before Capernaum, in capacit}* for belief and penitence ; de- 
claring that it would be more tolerable for T} T re and Sidon, 
for Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment than for 
those places which had been the ordinary scene of his minis- 
try. 1 All these are modifications of that one thought : The 
Jews are sunk below the heathen by their utter incapacity to 
receive the gospel. 

When Jesus had once formed this idea, that the Jews would 
be excluded and the heathen would take their places, we might 
feel almost sure that he would give expression to it in an alle- 
gorical description of the prospects of the kingdom of God. 
In point of fact, we have two parables that answer to this 
description, one of which is given by both Matthew and 
Luke ; but the two versions differ so widely that we can 
i See pp. 235 and 259. 



304 JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 

hardly recognize the story as the same. In Matthew we read 
as follows : — 

There was once a king who was preparing a wedding feast 
for his son. When the first day of the festivities arrived, he 
sent his servants round early in the morning to tell the peo- 
ple he had invited that this was the day on which they were 
expected. But they all refused to come. Then he commis- 
sioned other officers of the court to go to the guests and say 
again : " See now, I have prepared the feast, I have slaugh- 
tered my oxen and sheep, and every thing is ready. Come, 
therefore, to the wedding feast ! " But they did not trouble 
themselves about the matter, and went on their way, — the 
one to his lands, and the other to his business. [And the 
rest seized the messengers, and ill-treated them and killed 
them. And when the king heard of it his anger was roused, 
and he sent his soldiers to destroy those murderers and to 
set their euy on fire.] Then he said to his servants : " The 
wedding feast is ready, but the guests were not worthy of it. 
I will tell you what to do ; go to the most frequented spots 
in the great highways and ask any one you chance to find to 
come to the feast." So the servants went out and brought 
back every one they met — travellers and tramps alike — 
until there was not a place empt} T at the wedding feast. 

If we strike out the interpolation about the ill-treatment 
of the messengers and the vengeance taken by the king the 
stoiy flows smoothly enough, and, though it sounds very odd 
to our ears, Oriental customs explain a great deal of it. It 
evidently means that the places in the Messianic kingdom 
which Jewish insolence had left vacant would be filled by the 
heathen. The interpolated passage, to which there is a par- 
allel in Luke in another connection, 1 is utterly out of place 
where it stands. It refers to the evil treatment which the 
messengers of Christ experienced from the Jews, and the 
punishment inflicted on the latter in the devastation of Jeru- 
salem. It is not a genuine utterance of Jesus, therefore, — 
nay, it is even post-apostolic ; and to represent the calling of 
the heathen as though it were not to take place till after the 
fall of Jerusalem, which was in the }'ear 70 a.d., spoils the 
whole parable. Matthew introduces the story at a peculiarly 
inappropriate point of the history, and concludes it with an 
appendix, to which we shall have to return presently. 

Luke, on the contrary, gives us a picture which calls for no 
special comment. We read that Jesus was dining with a 

i Luke xix 27, 



JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 305 

Pharisee on the Sabbath, and in answer to the exclamation 
of one of the guests, tk Blessed are they that shall be admit- 
ted to the Messianic feast ! " told the following story : — 

A rich man once prepared a splendid entertainment. He 
asked a great number of guests beforehand, and they accepted. 
When the feast was prepared, he sent round his servant, as 
an extra mark of attention, to say to the guests, "All is 
read}', and I am expecting you." But they all began to 
make excuses with one mouth. The first said : tk I have just 
bought a piece of land, and I really must go and look at it. 
You must not take it amiss, but I cannot come." Another 
said : u I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go 
and try them. You must not be vexed if I do not come." 
Another: "I have married lately, and cannot leave home 
just now." And so with them all ; they all thought more 
of their own business than of their engagement. When the 
servant came back with these messages, his master was of 
course veiy angry, and said to him : "• Go out again, into 
the streets and lanes of the city, and bring hither the poor 
and needy, the blind and the lame." Presently the servant 
returned and said : ' ' Master ! I have done as you com- 
manded, and there is room still." "Then go out of the 
chVv, and whomever }*ou find on the roads or along the hedge- 
rows spare no trouble, but compel them to come with you 
that my house may be full. For I tell you not one of those 
who were invited shall taste nry feast ! " 

Here, as we see at once, every thing is as it should be. 
The story itself seems far from impossible when we consider 
the usage of Eastern countries. The separate images corre- 
spond closely to the true purpose of the parable, and the order 
of succession is carefully observed. The points in which 
Luke departs from Matthew strike us at once. Here there 
are three separate invitations, — first, to the pious and re- 
spectable Jews, who decline (observe the delicacy of the de- 
lineation) ; second, to the outcasts of Israel, who accept 
(the terms by which the sinners are described have some- 
thing of an Ebionite air about them) ; * and third, to the hea- 
then, in which every effort must be put forth to take no 
refusal. There is but one servant who invites the guests to 
the kingdom of God — namely, Jesus himself, — and an ordi- 
nary supper is substituted for the royal wedding feast. How 
far Luke has retained the original form of the story in these 
points, and how far he has modified, improved, and com- 

1 Compare Luke xiv. 21 with 13. See also p. 245. 



306 JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 

pleted it, it is impossible to saj T with any confidence. All 
that we can be sure of is that the occasion of its delivery is 
his own invention. 

We have represented all these threats, though doubtless 
addressed more especially to the Pharisees and their adhe- 
rents, as extending to the whole of the Jewish people, the 
'• heirs of the kingdom." But of course there w^ere honorable 
exceptions. We have also supposed that the threats in- 
creased in number and severity as Jesus approached the 
close of his career. But however this may be, it is certain 
that in spite of his melancholy experience and dark forebod- 
ings as to the spiritual incapacity of the Jews he still labored 
to the very end, with unwearied zeal, to save them. In fact, 
these very threatenings were intended as one means of bring- 
ing them to repentance. We shall presently see him resolve 
to make a last and mighty effort in the City of the Temple 
itself, and thus appeal to his nation in general. When he 
fails in this we shall find him drawing one more sketch, in 
darker colors than ever, of the conduct and the destiny of 
the Jews. 

But he knew already that the result of his labors and the 
triumph of his cause did not depend upon his reception or 
rejection by Israel. Should his gospel be finally rejected by 
Israel, he still had hope. He had included the heathen world 
in the sweep of his forecasting thought, and there his gospel 
would find faith. This was his consolation even before the 
fatal conflict at Jerusalem was decided. 

Whenever Jesus speaks of the Messianic feast, we see that 
he regards the accession of the heathen to take the place of 
his own unbelieving countrymen as a kind of incorporation 
of these heathen into Israel, or at airy rate as the communi- 
cation to them of privileges which originally belonged to 
Israel. Indeed, this seemed so obvious that the Apostle of 
the heathen himself took the same view. 1 Israel was, after 
all, the people to whom the revelations and promises of God 
had been made. 2 Salvation was of the Jews. 3 How this 
incorporation or communication was to be effected, — whether 
it was enough for the heathen to have faith and to desire 
salvation, or whether they must also comply with certain 
external conditions, — this was a question, as we have said 
before, which did not rise until after the death of Jesus. Now 

i Romans xi. 15 ff. i. 16. 2 Romans iii. 1 ff. 

« John iv. 22. 



JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 307 

though we, who are free from the national and religious prej- 
udices of the Jews, cannot possibly imagine Jesus making 
the admission of the heathen dependent upon any outward 
form ; though we consequently regard the Heathen-Christian 
preachers as absolutely in the right on this point, — yet we can 
partly understand how the Twelve, and all the Jewish-Chris- 
tians with them, could appeal in complete good faith to the 
fact that Jesus had never expressly declared that heathen 
or any others were absolved from circumcision and obedience 
to the Law ; and, consequently, when a number of Jews 
were converted soon after the Master's death, it might be 
supposed that his threats against his people had been to a 
great extent averted ; 1 that Israel would still retain the place 
of honor in the kingdom of God, and that the believing hea- 
then would be allowed to take the lower place assigned to 
them only on condition of their submitting in whole or in 
part to the Law. 2 

Now the Gospels are full of stories and expressions which 
refer to these very points ; but though they profess to be pas- 
sages in the life of Jesus, or sayings uttered b} r him, they 
realty sprang up in the midst of the subsequent conflict of 
parties, and indeed were produced by it. We called atten- 
tion at the beginning of this chapter to several of these say- 
ings, which will find their true place in the histor}- of the 
apostolic period; and here, by way of conclusion, we will 
give a single specimen of the work of each of the three 
schools, — the orthodox, the mediating, and the liberal. 

At the close of the parable of the ro} r al wedding feast 
Matthew sketches this additional scene : — 

When the feast was at its height the king himself came in, 
that the guests might have the honor and pleasure of his 
illustrious presence. As he passed along the colonnades and 
among the couches, surveying and accosting his guests, he 
perceived a man without a wedding garment ! In mingled 
anger and surprise he cried, "Friend! how did you gain 
admission here without a wedding garment?" The insolent 
intruder had not a word to say. t4 Bind him hand and foot," 
said the prince to the attendants, " and cast him into the 
darkness without. There shall be wailing and gnashing of 
teeth." For many are called but few chosen. 

This last aphorism was undoubtedly uttered by Jesus, 
though we cannot say on what occasion. It means : Those 
who are invited into the kingdom of God are many, but those 
1 Compare Jeremiah xviii. 7, 8, et seq. 2 Compare p. 232. 



S08 JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 

who show themselves fit and worthy to enter it are few. In 
this connection, however, it is entirely out of place, for here 
we read of only a single member of the whole company be- 
ing cast out ; or even if we include the discourteous guests or 
the murderers, at any rate the festive hall was full. Setting 
this aside, we turn to the guest without a wedding garment. 
That a man picked up hap-hazard on the highway should not 
be provided with such a robe is far from surprising ; and the 
appeal to an imaginary Oriental custom of the host furnishing 
his guests with suitable apparel quite breaks down. But it is 
needless to dwell upon this matter, or to ask how this intruder 
had forced his way into the hall without a proper robe, for it 
is perfectly obvious that the whole scene is entirely out of 
place in the parable of the wedding feast. Whatever its 
meaning ma} r be, it is quite foreign to the purpose of the story 
into which it is inserted. If it is authentic, it must be a frag- 
ment of some story the rest of which has been lost. It has 
been conjectured that it was a warning either to Judas, or 
more generally to all slovenly, ill-accoutred guests of the ap- 
proaching kingdom of heaven. But the probability is that it 
is not an authentic utterance of Jesus at all ; and, in its pres- 
ent connection at any rate, it is certainly intended to indicate 
that heathen who vainly imagined they could enter the Mes- 
sianic kingdom just as they were, without the necessary festal 
garment of righteousness according to the Law, would be 
miserably rejected at the great judgment. 1 

We will now take another story, and this time it shall be 
the work of the conciliatory school : When Jesus had re- 
turned to Capernaum, after pronouncing the Sermon on the 
Mount, 2 an officer of the garrison came to him, and said : 
''Lord! my servant is lying in bed at home, disabled, and 
in extremity of pain ! " u I will come and heal him then," 
said Jesus readily. " No, Lord ! " said the heathen, "lam 
not worthy to receive you under my roof. Only say the word 
of might, and my servant will be well. I understand these 
things ; for I myself have my superiors and my subordinates, 
and I say to one soldier, ' Go ! ' and he goes ; and to another, 
1 Come ! ' and he comes ; and to this servant of mine, ' Do 
this ! ' and he does it. In the same wa} T you have the spirits 
of sickness under your authority." Jesus listened in surprise 
and delight, and then turning to his followers, he cried: " I 
tell you I have not met with such great faith even in Israel 

1 Compare, for example, Acts xv. ] and Kevelation iii. 4, 5, 18, xix. 7-9. 
« See p. 141 . 



JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHEN. 309 

itself! " Thereupon he dismissed the officer, with the assur- 
ance, "It shall be to you according to j T our faith!" And 
at that moment his servant recovered. 

So Matthew tells the stoiy ; but Luke heightens the color- 
ing by making the sick man lie " at the point of death," and 
still more by exaggerating the officer's humility. He think* 
himself unworthy of approaching Jesus in person, and makes 
use of the friendly offices of some Jewish elders, who earn- 
estly plead his cause with Jesus: l ' He deserves this boon, 
for he loves our nation, and it was he who built us a syna- 
gogue." It matters little that this trait introduces a further 
improbability and contradiction, 1 for in its literal acceptation 
the stoiy is hopeless at best. Would Jesus realty have been 
pleased with such gross superstition, were it conceivable? 
And is it not absolutely impossible that he could have healed 
the sick man from a distance? The only essential point, and 
the only one to which we need attend, is the indirect com- 
mendation of Israel, in which Jesus had found great faith, 
and the direct praise of the heathen, who had shown still 
greater faith. The conciliatory spirit of the story is obvious 
at once. The hint that the heathen when converted to Chris- 
tianity love Israel, and are ready in case of need to sup- 
port it with their gifts, is by no means without significance. 
It also deserves notice that the onty two narratives which the 
Gospels contain of miracles worked in favor of heathen, in 
consideration of their great faith, also furnish the solitary 
examples of miracles performed from a distance. This fea- 
ture is a striking indication at once of their originally sym- 
bolic character and of their remarkable ndelit} T to the truth 
they shadowed forth ; for personalty or hand to hand Jesus 
labored onty for the preservation of his own countrymen, 
but from a distance, — -that is to say, from heaven, and by 
means of his envoys, — he also toiled to deliver the heathen. 

Lastly, we will give an example of the work of the liberal 
school. The third Evangelist differs from the first and second 
in making Samaria the scene of a considerable part of the 
labors of Jesus. In describing the memorable journey to 
Jerusalem he begins by completely departing from Matthew 
and Mark, and making Jesus pass through Samaria and spend 
some time in it. 2 An elaborate narrative intervenes before 
Luke joins the other two Evangelists again, and it would 
seem that the scene is throughout laid either in whole or in 

1 Luke vii. 6 ff. ; and compare verse 3 with verse 6. 

* Luke ix. 51, 52, 56, 57, x. 1, 38, xiii. 22, xiv. 25, xvii. 11. 



310 JESUS AND THE SAMARITANS AND HEATHER 

part in Samaria. 1 But on this point the Evangelist's expres- 
sions are not free from ambiguit}'. Now this independent 
narrative is the longest section of Luke's whole work, and 
records a number of parables, sayings, and events which do 
not occur in the other Gospels. It begins with an nnhis toxi- 
cal account of a rebuke administered to the sons of Zebedee 
for reciprocating the sectarian hatred of the Samaritans, 2 and 
it goes on to describe how Jesus appointed seventy other dis- 
ciples and sent them out, two and two, to visit every town or 
village to which he himself was intending to come. But the 
whole of this journey through Samaria is incredible. The 
oldest accounts represent Jesus as going through Persea, and 
Luke himself involuntarily confirms them by making him pass 
through Jericho to the capital. Nor did the journey occupy 
so long a time as would appear from the account of it given 
b}^ Luke, who disguises it almost beyond recognition, and 
transforms it into a very extensive missionary undertaking, 
which was to include at least five-and- thirty separate places. 
Nor is the narrative consistent with itself, for the Evangelist 
constantly forgets that Jesus is not in Galilee, and most of 
the occurrences he describes could not possibly have taken 
place in Samaria. 3 But however incredible Luke's account 
may be, its purpose is obvious enough. In laying the scene 
of an important part of the Master's labors outside the land 
of the Jews, he intends to represent the problem of heathen 
conversions as already solved by the facts. 

The same purpose may be discerned in the following story. 
It is an unsuccessful imitation of the account we have al- 
ready examined of the healing of a leper. 4 It is absolutely 
unhistorical, and does not make the least addition to our 
knowledge of the life or character of Jesus. It is simply 
intended to show that, while those who are and those who 
are not Jews are alike leprous and unclean, labor is far 
more likely to be repaid among the latter than among the 
former : — 

On his journey to Jerusalem, through Samaria and Galilee, 
Jesus was just entering a certain village when ten lepers, 
standing at a distance as their unclean disease required, 
besought him aloud, "Jesus! Master! take pity on us!" 
Their appeal was not in vain. •' Go your ways," he replied, 

i Luke ix. 51-xviii. 14. 2 See p. 192. 

3 For instance, Luke xiii. 10, 31, x. 25, xi. 37, 45, 53, xiv. 1, xv. 2, xvi. 14, 
jtvii. 20. 

4 See pp. 202, 203 ; compare 2 Kings v. and vol. ii. chap. xiii. pp. 157-159. 



JESUS THE MESSIAH. 311 

filling their hearts with joyful hope, " and show yourselves to 
the priests." And as they went their fearful malady forsook 
them. Now one of them, seeing that he was healed, went 
back to his benefactor glorifying God, and bowed down be- 
fore him with fervent gratitude. This man was a Samari- 
tan. Jesus not unnaturally said, " Were there not ten lepers 
healed? Then where are the other nine? Is this stranger 
the only one who returns to give thanks to God?" Then he 
looked approvingly upon the man, who was still kneeling at 
his feet, and said, "Rise up and go your way; } r our faith 
has saved }'ou." 

Strangers received the help of Israel's deliverer with grati- 
tude. His gospel purified the heathen world from its deep 
corruption, and was recognized by it as the source of light 
and strength, the fountain of new life. 

Jesus, to his eternal glory, retained his hope unshaken 
through all the sad experiences of his own people's w T ant of 
faith ; and that hope was nobly justified by the result. 



Chapter XXV. 

JESUS THE MESSIAH. 

Mark VIII. 27-30 ; Matthew IV. 1-11.1 

JESUS had withdrawn from the scene of conflict. He had 
taken ship with the twelve at Dalmanutha, or in the 
neighborhood of Magdala, where his opponents were harass- 
ing him, and had crossed the lake. 2 He landed on the north- 
eastern shore, went on to Bethsaida, crossed the river a little 
above this cit} T , and, keeping it on his right hand, still jour- 
neyed northwards. Some ten miles further up, the way led 
over Jacob's Bridge (which is standing yet) , and along the 
left bank of the river Jordan and the waters of Merom . Then 
he skirted the fertile and well- watered plain above this little 
lake, and kept his course northward, till about twenty miles 
above Jacob's Bridge he came upon the hamlets that lie round 
Caesarea Philippi to the south. 

It was a region of entrancing beauty and of extreme fer- 

i Matthew xvi. 33-20; Luke ix. 18-21, iv. 1-13; Mark i. 12, 13. 
2 See pp. 281 ff. 



812 JESUS THE MESSIAH. 

tility ; the same that had excited the cupidity of the Damtes 
in the olden time. 1 Here the many fountains and branches of 
the Jordan foamed and rushed upon their way, to join at last 
in one broad stream ; and the eye wandered over the fairest 
pastures and the noblest forests till it rested on the stately 
Hermon. The city whose territory lay in this favored region 
was called after Augustus Caesar, like its namesake on the 
coast of the Mediterranean Sea ; and to distinguish it from 
the latter it bore an additional name taken from the tetrarch 
Philip, who founded or at least extended and beautified it very 
soon after his accession, with a view to making it the seat of 
his government. It was for the most part a heathen city, 
and could boast of more than one celebrated shrine in its im- 
mediate neighborhood. At the time of which we are speak- 
ing it was in Roman territory. 

What was it that took Jesus two short da}V journey to the 
extreme north of Palestine with no apparent object? It can- 
not have been to escape his enemies ; for he need have gone 
no further than Bethsaida to be safe from the plots of Herod 
and the pursuit of the champions of Jewish orthodox}^. Nor 
was his object simply to rest a time and enjo}^ the beauties of 
Nature ; for he was too deeply absorbed in many questions 
of extreme importance to have e}^es or attention for those 
beauties now. He felt that he must collect himself, examine 
his position and prospects from every side, come to some 
definite decision, and adopt the corresponding measures. 
Things could not go on as they were. He must choose some 
new line of action, and must hasten the decisive moment. 
The thoughts and projects which had long been rising and 
growing in his mind, especially since the death of John, now 
came to full maturity. And now, for the first time, he w r as 
in a position to communicate them to his friends. It was 
high time to do so. The third Evangelist indicates the im- 
portance of the crisis bj r saying that Jesus prayed. Doubt- 
less he did ask wisdom from on high and commit the issue to 
God. 

Somewhere in the neighborhood of Csesarea, then, as he 
was out of doors with the Twelve, he turned to them, and, 
with an expression both of face and voice which showed them 
it was no ordinary matter of which he spoke, asked, u Whom 
do people suppose me to be ? " The} T knew that he did not 
mean to ask them what his opponents said of him, but what 
the masses, who regarded him with more or less favor, thought 
i See vol. i. pp. 376, 377. 



JESUS THE MESSIAH. 313 

and expected of him. Hitherto he had troubled himself but 
little with such matters, for he had always kept his own per- 
sonality as completely as possible in the background ; but at 
this crisis he must know the opinion of his followers, for 
much depended on it. The Twelve were naturally in a bet- 
ter position than Jesus himself for ascertaining the opinions 
generally held concerning him, and they had no difficulty in 
answering his question. It appeared that several opinions 
were current. Some believed that he was John the Baptist, 
who had not really been murdered, or had been called back 
by God from the land of shadows to take up his work again ; 
others thought he was Elijah, returned from heaven to per- 
form the task that had been assigned to him and prepare for 
the Messianic age ; others again took him for Jeremiah, risen 
from the dead to disclose the sacred objects that had been 
concealed ever since Jerusalem was sacked ; others regarded 
him more vaguely as one of the ancient prophets returned to 
life from the world below to do the work of preparation. 1 

There is much appearance of diversity in these opinions, 
and at first sight their extravagance may seem astounding ; 
but a moment's reflection will put an end to our surprise, and 
will show us that in the only essential point there is remark- 
able unanimity among them ; for all the different opinions 
come to this, that Jesus was the precursor of the Messianic 
kingdom. The form which this fundamental belief adopted 
was dependent, in the case of each individual, upon whether 
he expected Elijah or Jeremiah, or, more vaguely, "one of 
the prophets," or John himself, to complete the work of 
preparation. The great mass of his disciples then regarded 
Jesus as the herald of the kingdom of God ; and, considering 
the character of all his preaching from his first appearance in 
public, no belief could possibly have been more natural. 

It was clear, however, that the disciples were simply giving 
their Master a faithful account of what " people " said of him, 
and were not stating their own belief; and Jesus, following 
up the first question with another, asked them eagerly, " But 
you yourselves ! whom do } T ou think I am ? " Constrained yet 
eager glances passed between the Twelve, and for a moment 
there was silence, — but for a moment only ! Then Simon 
(Peter), the foremost of them all upon this as upon other 
occasions, answered confidently, "You are the Messiah!" 
It was evidently in the name of all the rest, as well as his own, 
that he offered this title (the highest that could be conceived) 

i See pp. 49, 99, 104, 272. 

VOL. III. 14 



314 JESUS THE MESSIAH. 

to his Master. Nor did Jesus reject it, though he strongly 
urged his disciples never to speak of it to any one, nor to let 
their conviction be known. 

But, for all that, henceforth Jesus was the Messiah ; not 
only in his own consciousness, but to the world. His resolve, 
which had been his own secret hitherto, still capable of alter- 
ation, was now irrevocable. His own personal fate and the 
future of his cause were now decided. 

Here we ma}^ pause to point out some of the inferences that 
may be drawn from this conversation between Jesus and his 
friends, and to offer gome necessary explanations. 

In the first place, the two questions and answers prove in- 
controvertibly that hitherto Jesus had never proclaimed him- 
self to be the Messiah, and had never been recognized as 
such by others. This consideration is absolutely fatal to the 
historical character of all those recognitions of his Messiah- 
ship which we have seen ascribed to demons, to sufferers who 
asked his aid, to his own disciples, and to the people at large. 1 
But there is another point of more importance which must be 
considered in this, connection. According to the Gospels, 
Jesus very early adopted the practice of frequently speaking 
of himself in the third person under the designation of ' ' the 
Son of Man." We have treated this expression as simply 
equivalent to the first personal pronoun " I." * Indeed, it is 
impossible to la}- clown airy fixed rule as to when Jesus uses 
"I" and when " the Son of Man," and the condition in which 
our authorities have come clown to us is such that we cannot 
at all rely upon them on such a point as this. It often hap- 
pens that one Gospel has "I" and another " the Son of Man " 
in the very same passage. For instance, in the scene we 
have just described Matthew gives the first question thus : 
1 * Whom do people take the Son of Man to be ? " For this 
and other reasons it is very doubtful what Jesus intended the 
name to mean. He certainly never used it as implying that 
he was himself the ideal man. To do so would have been 
utterly foreign to his nature. Now Ezekiel constantly calls 
himself in his own oracles " son of a man," 3 that is " weak 
mortal ! " and it has been conjectured that Jesus borrowed the 
term from him, and used it to indicate his prophetic mission 
and at the same time his human infirmity and dependence 
upon God, — or perhaps the latter only. Others suppose that 

i See pp. 135, 136, 208, 269, 287. 2 See pp. 187, 199, 204, 214, et seq 

3 Compare vol. ii. chap. ix. p. 406. 



JESUS THE MESSIAH. 315 

the expression was taken from the well-known vision of 
Daniel, where it is used for "the kingdom of the saints." 1 
In this case Jesus may have applied it either to the subjects 
of the Messianic kingdom generally, and to himself as one of 
them, as their leader and exemplar, or in a more strictly per- 
sonal sense to himself as king. There is, indeed, no room to 
doubt that the vision in Daniel is the source from which the 
expression is taken in the numerous passages that speak of 
the " coming" of the Son of Man, and of his coming " with 
the clouds." Here and there this expression may be used as 
equivalent to the revelation of the kingdom of Messiah, 2 and 
indeed Matthew has " the Sou of Man" in a passage in which 
the other two read the " kingdom of God." 3 But when it is 
said of this Son of Man that he shall " sit at the right hand 
of God," which the ideal king is described as doing in the 
hundred and tenth Psalm, the reference is most certainty to 
the Messiah himself, and specifically to Jesus as the Messiah. 4 
Here we are met b} 7 another difficulty ; for if Jesus realty did 
call himself the Son of Man before this occurrence at Csesarea 
Philippi, then the expression cannot originally have meant 
"the Messiah," either on his lips or in the opinion of his 
hearers. In short, we must be content to confess our igno- 
rance. We can be sure only of this : that Jesus never claimed 
the title as a personal right, but simply used it to indicate the 
nature of his work and his function in the world. 

Another point of still greater interest is the question, how 
long and in what sense Jesus had felt that he was called to be 
the Messiah ? We must bear in mind that if on this occasion 
he accepted a title that had never before been claimed by him, 
or offered to him, he did so simply because it realty corre- 
sponded better than an} r other title to his personal conscious- 
ness of the nature of his mission. His own inmost convictions 
emphatically forbade him to reject the title. Let no one think 
that he acquiesced out of complaisance to a Jewish error or a 
prejudice of the Apostles. Such weak compliance would have 
been impossible to him, and, moreover, in this case would 
have been the very height of folly. Then, how are we to 
reconcile the beginning with the end of his career ; the task 
of the king with that of the herald of the kingdom of God? 

1 Daniel vii. 13, 14; compare verses 18, 22, 27 ; Psalm Ixxx. 17; and vol. ii. 
chap. xxii. p. 555. 

2 Matthew x. 23, xxiv. 27 (Luke xvii. 24), 30 (Mark xiii. 26 ; Luke xxi. 27). 
8 Matthew xvi. 28 ; compare Mark ix. 1 ; Luke ix. 27. 

4 Matthew xxvi. 64 (Mark xiv. 62; Luke xxii. 69); compare xix. 28, xxv 
31 ; and Acts vii. 56 ; Revelation i. 13, xiv. 14. 



316 JESTJS THE MESSIA.H. 

Had lie known that he was the Messiah from the beginning 
of his public life, and had he hitherto concealed this knowl- 
edge? Or had bis own views changed in this respect, and 
bad he only latel} T assumed in his own mind the task and 
name of Messiah instead of those of precursor ? Most peo- 
ple adopt the former supposition, and believe that at his bap- 
tism, as the Gospels declare, or between that event and the 
imprisonment of John, he became conscious that he was the 
Messiah. But we have adopted the other alternative, and 
have assumed its truth in our treatment of the narratives 
alread}- dealt with. To us it appears in the highest degree 
unnatural that Jesus should have begun his ministry with a 
secret reservation, should have kept his true mission long 
concealed, and in a certain sense given himself out for some- 
thing other than what he really believed himself to be. The 
natural inference alwaj's is that an honest man thinks he is 
what he says he is. Moreover, the Messiahship was not a right 
or dignit3 T — like that of the pretender to a crown — which 
Jesus at a definite moment felt to be his due. It was a life- 
task, and to take it up required a stern resolve. When first 
the thought rose in his heart, and his sense of dut}' more and 
more clearly pointed him to the task, he must in the nature of 
things have paused for a time in uncertaimVy. A sublime act 
of faith was needed like that by whichT John stood up to do Eli- 
jah's work, but loftier and mightier. As John had determined 
to hasten the coming of God's kingdom, so Jesus resolved to 
do neither more nor less than bring it to earth himself! 

It is true that the period within which this important 
change in his conception of his task took place must have 
been very limited ; but intensity and concentration of life 
ma} T make one 3 T ear equivalent to man}\ We should hardly 
expect a man like Jesus to begin with the very highest and 
hardest task before he had even tried his strength. He too, 
like every one else, must first express himself in word and 
deed, and set himself with all his powers and all his gifts to 
work, before he could possibly come to the full consciousness 
of his own nature and his own powers. Again, when first he 
began to teach, he had promised himself and the world that 
the kingdom would be shortly founded by a glorious act of 
God, and it needed experience to teach him that, unless 
he girded himself to new and intenser effort, that kingdom 
would not come as yet. He was disappointed in his nation 
and its leaders. Like all great reformers, he had expected 
the speedy realization of his ideal without having formed any 



JESUS THE MESSIAH. 3.17 

<k finite conception of the way in which it would be brought 
about. This realization, he at first imagined, was not his 
work. Preparation only w r as the task that had been assigned 
to him ; but, since this preparation for the kingdom was itself 
an initial establishment of it, he spoke of the kingdom of 
God already as present among men. He had spoken from 
the first, and all through the time when his work appeared so 
wonderfully successful, of a gradual and natural development ; 
but he had not at all realized the extreme slowness which 
necessarily characterizes such a process. What of that? If 
his work had grown, so had his powers. He had risen up to 
continue the preaching of John, and to complete his work. 
He had turned to the sinners, knowing that if the}- repented 
the promised salvation would no longer be delayed ; and when 
his efforts had been successful in many cases, when the ex- 
pression of his inner life and the exercise of his powers had 
taught him to know himself, then the conviction had risen 
within him that the heart of man knew no religious wants 
which he could not satisfy. And therefore he could no longer 
point to a future in which God would bless his people with 
purer light, closer communion with Himself, and more blessed 
peace than those which he (Jesus) already experienced him- 
self and knew that he could give to others. At the same 
time his own sense of dignity rose in direct proportion to the 
violence of the opposition he experienced from the learned 
and pious champions of religion. The pride of the discarded 
prophet was aroused. The more decisively he was rejected 
the more distinctly did he put himself forward and assert his 
personal claims. This brings us to a final and conclusive 
proof that he had but recently resolved to become the Mes- 
siah. It may be found in the change which we have had re- 
peated opportunities of observing in his general bearing. 
Not only had he definitely broken with the Pharisaic party, 
but he had assumed a far more loftvy tone of authority than 
ever before. 1 

We are now in a position fully to understand all this. 
Jesus had put his people to a practical test, and had dis- 
covered that if no other wa}^ were taken than that which 
John and he himself so far had trodden, then the kingdom 
of God was not at hand. A heroic effort was needed to make 
it come, yet come it must and should. He himself must 
shrink from no sacrifice, and fall short of no demand, that 
might be requisite. Now he knew for certain that he pos- 
i See pp. 259, 273-275, 278-281. 302; compare pp. 212, 215. 



318 JESUS THE MESSIAH. 

sessed all those spiritual blessings which were promised in 
the Messianic age, and therefore he might and could declare 
that the kingdom of God had come in him. What he could 
do and might do he must do. What he was justified in say- 
ing ai:d able to say, that he was also bound to sa} T ; not " the 
kingdom of God is at hand ! " but " the kingdom of God is 
here ! I am the Messiah ! As far as human agency and 
effort go, I bring } t ou the promised salvation." 

All this shows us clearly enough the sense in which Jesus 
became the Messiah. It was probably not without hesitation 
that he adopted the title, for the name of Messiah would be 
almost sure to occasion the grossest misconceptions in the 
minds not only of the people, but of his own special friends 
as well. It is true that there had never been, and was not 
then, any settled belief as to the Messiah ; but the conception 
of a magnificent and powerful monarch was pretty generally 
associated with the word, and of course Jesus never dreamed 
of expecting worldly honor and dominion. But, on the other 
hand, it was impossible for him to reject the title, especially 
now that it was offered to him spontaneously. Had he done 
so, it would have caused the far more serious misconception 
that another (the Messiah) was still to be expected, and that 
Jesus himself was not qualified or competent to establish the 
kingdom of God ; whereas, he felt that he had indeed come 
to fulfil the hope of the pious ancestors and the promises of 
the prophets, and that he should not fail. In the true and 
highest sense of the term, according to its spiritual significa- 
tion, he felt that he could be the Messiah ; and he resolved 
that he would. He and no other ! He would rule, but only 
by moral force, b} 7 the influence of his gospel. To him the 
kingdom of God meant first and chiefly the union of all spir- 
itual blessings ; * and, as the Messiah, he would dispense these 
blessings. He would be the light of the world, the salt of the 
earth ; as a teacher he would lead the peoples, personally or 
by means of his emissaries, to a sense of the love of God and 
the dignity of man ; he would be followed and obe}'ed for the 
truth's sake which he uttered. He would be the sower, and 
would see an ever-richer harvest rising from the seed that he 
had sown ; he would guide the feeble ; he would be the peace- 
maker and the giver of life ; and his authority should be ac- 
knowledged by all mankind in perfect freedom and with all 
the heart. In this sense only could he adopt the title and 
accept the homage of his friends. Thus we see that even 
i See p. 151. 



JESUS THE MESSIAH. 319 

when Jesus was compelled to introduce his own person into 
the problem, }'et the kingdom of God itself remained, as it 
always had been, the one supreme object of his thoughts. 

The last question we have to ask is, how Simon came to 
recognize his Master as the Lord's anointed, and what he 
understood the title to imply ? The first Gospel tells us that 
to Simon's confession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the 
living God ! " Jesus replied in a strain of solemn exaltation : 
" Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jona ! for flesh and blood 
have not revealed it unto you, but my Father in heaven. 
And I say unto thee that thou art a rock (Peter) , and that 
on this rock I will build nry community, and the gates of the 
realms of the dead shall be found weaker than it. And, 
moreover, I will give 3-011 the ke}'s of the kingdom of heaven, 
and whatever 3-ou forbid or permit, command or do away, on 
earth, it shall be confirmed by God in heaven." These words, 
to which the Roman Catholic Church appeals in support of the 
supremac}* of the Pope as Peter's successor, are certainly not 
genuine. Jesus did not rank Simon above the rest of the 
Apostles, nor did he give him the name of Peter ; and he 
never could or would have ascribed to any of his followers the 
power of excluding any one from the kingdom of God, or of 
giving out laws and ordinances. 1 The Jewish-Christian party 
put these words into the mouth of Jesus to glorify their spe- 
cial Apostle. But the passage embodies a true perception of 
the fact that Jesus, if not surprised, was certainly rejoiced to 
find that his friends had enough clearness of spiritual vision 
and depth of spiritual life to recognize his true greatness, to 
appreciate the religious significance of his work and person, 
and to understand his aims, unlike the expected Messiah as 
he was in all his outward surroundings. It was their deep 
affection for the Master and their fervent longing for the 
coming of God's kingdom that made them recognize Jesus 
as the Messiah, and their confession was at the same time 
an indirect appeal to him to assume the office. And again, 
the tone of authority he had lately assumed had helped to 
suggest the thought, and now encouraged them to utter it. 

But if the confession gave Jesus cause for joy, it gave him 
cause for apprehension too. This was why he warned the 
disciples so emphatically not to tell any one that he was the 
Messiah, and why he took an early opportunity of expressly 
talking over his plans and prospects with them. For they 
were far from having sacrificed the carnal expectations and 
1 Compare p. 131. 



320 JESUS THE MESSIAH. 

ambitious dreams of their nation. The}' still thought of the 
dignity of the Messiah as political in its nature, and of the 
Messiah himself as an earthly king. And of course their 
personal interests came into play, for if their Master ascended 
the throne, they too would share in his exaltation. Jesus was 
soon to learn how deeply this false conception was rooted in 
their heart's. 

Indeed, all the contemporaries of Jesus were so completely 
wedded to this idea that even the early Jewish-Christian com- 
munities could not relinquish it. One of many illustrations 
of this fact is preserved in a narrative contained in the first 
Gospel. 1 It belongs to the same class as the stories in the 
Apocryphal Gospels, and runs as follows : — 

Some days after the events at Caesarea Jesus was once 
more at Capernaum. It was just the time for collecting the 
tax levied in support of the temple, which amounted to two 
drachmas a head (about one shilling and fourpence of our 
money), and was paid yearly by every Jew. 2 The collectors, 
not daring to address Jesus himself, said to Peter, "Does 
not your Master pay the two drachmas?" "Certainly he 
does," answered Peter, forgetting for the moment what was 
implied in his Master's dignity as the Messiah. He went 
into the house to tell Jesus ; but hardly had he entered when 
Jesus, who knew every thing, anticipated him with the ques- 
tion, "What think you, Simon! from whom do the kings 
of the earth take toll and tribute, — from their own sons or 
from strangers?" "From strangers," answered the other. 
"Then the children are free," said Jesus (meaning, "Then 
I, as the Messiah or Son of God, need not pay") ; "but, 
not to give them offence," he continued, " go to the lake and 
throw 3'our hook, and in the mouth of the first fish you catch 
you will find a stater [four drachmas]. Give it to the col- 
lectors for yourself and me.'' 

What a hopeless misconception underlies this argument! 
Jesus cherished a spiritual conception of the office of the 
Messiah, which was in directest conflict with the general opin 
ion of his people as expressed in this story and elsewhere. It 
stands to reason that this contrast must often have involved 
him in serious difficulties, and must have given rise to the 
severest mental conflicts. 

We have dwelt at such length on the Messianic dignity of 
Jesus because the subject is so exceedingly important. We 

i Matthew xvii. 24-27. 2 Exodus xxx. 11 ff. 



JESUS THE MESSIAH. 321 

regret all the more that the condition in which our authorities 
have come down to us is such as to drive us now and then to 
conjectures. We should be so thankful for complete certainty 
as to the manner in which Jesus expected the kingdom of 
God to be established, and the place which he believed he 
would occupy in it as the Messiah ! We would so willingly 
trace the development of his ideas on these matters clearly 
and confidently ! We shall soon see that he was at any rate 
well aware of the danger he incurred, and was prepared for 
the worst. In that connection, and again later on, we shall 
feel how much he must have passed through before he could 
resolve to take this step. 

But first let us open a page of the Gospels, which shows us 
that the earl}' Christian communities were deeply impressed 
with the importance of the question how Jesus earned the 
title of Messiah, and that the}* rightly connected his Messiah- 
ship with his severest mental conflict. This conflict they 
represent . as usual in a visible form, as an encounter between 
Christ and Satan. Inasmuch as they believed that Jesus 
was endowed by God with the Holy Spirit, and called to be 
the Messiah at his baptism, 1 they very naturally placed the 
conflict and temptation before his public ministry, in the pe- 
riod just after his baptism which histoiy had left vacant. 

As soon as Jesus was consecrated as the Messiah, the Spirit 
which had come upon him led him to the wilderness that he 
might be tempted by the Devil there. So must he approve 
himself as the Messiah. Forty days and forty nights he 
fasted absolutely ; and when his hunger was keen the Temp- 
ter came to him and said, " If you are God's son, command 
these stones to become bread." 2 But Jesus refused. u It is 
written," he said, u ' Man lives not by bread aione, but by all 
that God's word of power sends him.' " 3 Baffled in his first 
attempt, the Devil tried another means of seducing him into 
faithlessness to his mission as the Messiah. He bore him 
through the air with the speed of thought to the City of God, 
and, placing him on the parapet of the temple, said, " If you 
are God's son, hurl 3 T ourself down ; for it is written that He 
shall give His angels charge over 3*011, and thej shall take 
you in their hands that you may never strike your foot against 
a stone." 4 But Jesus answered firmly, "It is also written, 
• Thou shalt not try the Lord thy God, to see whether He is 

1 See pp. 117-121. 2 Compare pp. 265, 266. 

9 Deuteronomy viii. 3. 4 Psalm xci. 11, 12. 



322 JESUS THE MESSIAH. 

mighty to help.' " * The Devil did not yet despair, but made 
one more vigorous attack. Again he bore him through the 
air, this time to a very lofty mountain, from the top of which 
he could see all the kingdoms of the world, with all their 
wealth and splendor. Over all this the Devil could dispose 
at will ; and, as he showed his wide dominions to Jesus, he 
cried, ' ' All this will I give you if 3-011 will fall down and wor- 
ship me." But Jesus did not hesitate a moment. "Out of 
nry sight, Satan ! " he cried with indignant scorn ; " for it is 
written, 4 The Lord thy God shalt thou worship, and Him 
alone shalt thou revere.' " 2 Then the Devil left him, and 
angels drew near the victor and gave him food. It was a sign 
of God's approval, — the true and faithful hero's reward. 

Such is the story as Matthew gives it. It is a weird scene, 
and is sketched with high artistic power. Luke, besides other 
slight alterations, changes the order of the second and third 
temptations. Mark simply states that the spirit drove Jesus 
into the wilderness, where he remained forty days, tempted 
all the while bj T Satan and surrounded by wild creatures, 
while the angels brought him food and drink. We ma}- re- 
mark that the introduction of the first two temptations — "If 
you are God's son " — shows at once that it is as the Messiah 
that Jesus is tempted. It is of course absurd to ask seriously 
where we must place the scene of this conflict ; but the barren 
mountain- land north-west of Jericho has been pointed out 
ever since the Middle Ages as the true locality. It is called 
" Quarantania," after the forty da} T s Jesus is supposed to have 
spent in it. " The desert " is here a general designation of 
the abode of evil spirits, and also contains a reference to the 
forty years' wandering of the people of Israel, which fur- 
nished the model for this stoiy. Its leading idea is that the 
Messiah triumphed over the temptations to which Israel suc- 
cumbed. 3 This is the meaning of the number "forty" and 
of the introduction of the wild creatures ; but the prolonged 
fast during all these da} T s is borrowed from the story of the 
of Moses on Mount Sinai. 4 

The meaning of the separate temptations is not quite clear. 
The first recalls the murmuring of the Israelites for want of 
food, when God showed that he could preserve their life with- 
out bread ; that is, by other than the ordinary means, — by 
maima and quails. The Tempter urges Jesus to secure him- 

1 Deuteronomy vi. 16. 2 Deuteronomy vi. 13. 

8 Compare p. 37; and Deuteronomy vlii. 2. 11-16. 
4 Exodus xxxiv. 28; Deuteronomy ir £, 18. 



JESUS THE MESSIAH. 323 

self an existence free from care. He, the Messiah, must not 
suffer want! Jesus refers him to a saying of Moses, which, 
as he uses it, is an expression of absolute trust in God. He 
will provide the necessaiy sustenance, and while pursuing 
the highest purposes Jesus will lay on Him all lower cares. 
Hereupon the Devil la} T s hold of the very weapons by which 
his first attack has been repelled ; namely, trust in God and 
reverence for the Scripture. He urges Jesus, as he stands 
on the sacred height, to risk every thing. In the fulfilment 
of his Messianic mission he may safely brave all dangers, 
and, if need be, establish the kingdom of God b}^ force, for 
God must needs support him. But Jesus, unlike Israel, who 
tested Yahweh to see whether he would give them water at 
Massah, refuses thus to challenge God. The Messiah must 
not regard himself as protected against mortal danger by any 
special interposition of God. He regards such reckless pre- 
sumption as a violation of the reverence due to God, and will 
use none but spiritual means to reach his end. Finally Sa- 
tan, who is lord of the heathen world which pays him hom- 
age (foi idolatry is the worship of Satan) , and has established 
his chief seat in the world-empire of Rome, now tries to per- 
suade the Messiah, for whom universal empire is reserved in 
the future, to obtain it bj~ a shorter and an easier way than 
by fidelit}* to Israel's god, — to obtain it now at the price of 
forsaking God, and accommodating himself, for example, 
to the ideas of heathendom. But if Israel of old had yielded 
to this temptation and had worshipped Satan, 1 Jesus refuses 
to wipe out the line of sharp demarcation which separates 
the people of the Lord from the worshippers of demons. 
The splendor of Rome cannot draw away his soul from obe- 
dience to the Law and from his own sacred purposes. He 
will enter upon no such unhallowed compromise, but flings 
away the thought with horror. 

The question whether this picture of the mental conflict 
and development of Jesus is a good one cannot be answered 
by a simple yes or no. In itself the conception is particu- 
larly unfortunate. For the untroubled communion of Jesus 
with God left no room for such morbid fancies as made a 
man like Luther suppose himself to be engaged in personal 
wrestling with the actual Devil. Moreover, the third temp- 
tation, which stamps the whole picture as of Jewish- Chris- 
tian origin, shows small appreciation of the spirit of Jesus. 2 
Finally, the position of the scene at the beginning of his 

1 Deutercuomy xxxii. 17. 2 Compare pp. 229, 224 ff., 279, 280. 



324 JESUS THE MESSIAH. 

career, before he had the least idea of becoming the Messiah, 
is at variance with history. On the other hand, the first two 
temptations are rather happily drawn ; 1 and in the conception 
that Jesus " was tempted in every thing just as we are, but 
without sin," 2 there is a profound ps} T chological truth which 
acquires special value when we consider the time at which it 
was uttered. For man, even for Jesus himself, there is no 
virtue without temptation, and no progress without dangers 
ever renewed. Not without sharp internal conflicts and 
unbroken moral effort did Jesus grow so good and great. 
Besides the ordinaiy temptations to which every man is 
exposed by his carnal nature and by intercourse with a sinful 
world ; besides the temptations of pride and ambition to which 
every one who stands out above his surroundings and above 
his age is pre-eminently liable, — we ma}^ suppose that two 
very special dangers threatened Jesus. The peculiar bent of 
his spiritual genius was such that exaggeration or one-sided 
development might easily hurry his religious life into fanati- 
cism, as the history of too many prophets shows ; and the 
genuine enjo} T ment of life which characterized him as an Is- 
raelite, together with the instinct of self-preservation, made 
him far from indifferent to the earthly expectations of his 
contemporaries, more especially when he had received his 
call as the Messiah. We shall presently see how hard he 
found it, as the Messiah, to reconcile himself to the thought 
of possible rejection at the hands of his people ; but at pres- 
ent we will not dwell upon those points any longer. 

Self-knowledge and incessant watchfulness and prayer ena- 
bled him to hold his own in every conflict. More specifically, 
his strong sense of his mission and the wonderful purity and 
exaltation of his purpose strengthened and defended him. 
He issued from temptation victorious. 

1 See pp. 168 ££. 2 Hebrews iv. 15. 



CONFLICT AND TRIUMPH FORESEEN. 325 

Chapter XXVI. 

CONFLICT AND TRIUMPH FORESEEN. 

Matthew XVII. 10-13, XVI. 21-28. 1 

WE will now take up the thread of the history again at 
the point at which we dropped it to weigh the signifi- 
cance of the fact that the Twelve greeted their Master as the 
future Messiah. 

The3 T had shown that they felt his greatness, and they had 
been initiated into his most secret thoughts. The natural 
consequence was that Jesus lived henceforth on a footing of 
closer intimacy with them than ever. If for the present they 
were to keep what had taken place a profound secret from 
the outer world, henceforth there were to be no secrets in 
their own inner circle. Jesus could now impart to them 
without reserve his plans and expectations, and, indeed, he 
was bound to do so for more reasons than one. Not only 
must his line of conduct very seriously affect their future lot, 
but they were, as already said, still slaves to their national 
prejudices, and in the utmost need of further enlightenment. 

We still have records of several conversations on subjects 
connected with the Messiah, sometimes started b} r Jesus him- 
self, and sometimes by the disciples. For instance, on one 
occasion they asked him the very natural question, "When 
the Scribes tell us that before the foundation of the Messianic 
kingdom Elijah must appear, are they mistaken ? " To which 
Jesus answered, " The} r are right in saying that Elijah comes 
first and makes all things ready in Israel. But I tell you 
that Elijah has already come, but they did not know him ; 
and in the blindness of their passion the} 7 persecuted him. 
And the same lot awaits the Son of Man at their hands." 
The disciples knew that he was speaking of the Baptist, and 
indeed he afterwards plainly declared, " John was the man 
of whom we read, ' Behold ! I send my messenger before your 
face to prepare }-our way before you.' If you will believe me 
when I sa} T it, he is the Elijah that was to come ! " 2 

The Master to share the fate of John ! How utterly 
amazed must the Twelve have been to hear such a declara- 

1 Luke ix. 22-27; Mark ix. 11-13, viii. 31-ix. 1. 

2 See p. 256. 



326 CONFLICT AND TRIUMPH FORESEEN. 

lion ! Bui for that very reason Jesus constantly returned to 
the subject from the moment when they acknowledged him as 
the Messiah at Csesarea Philippi. During the last few weeks 
or months before the Passover he was much alone with them, 
and had many opportunities of speaking of this matter to 
them. He soon began : according to the Gospels it was in 
the decisive hour of the confession itself. He laid before 
them in the clearest possible light how the path that he must 
tread had been pointed out to him, and whither it led. He 
must go to Jerusalem. So much at least was certain. Not 
only had his work been harassed of late, and his very life en- 
dangered in his fatherland, but the hour had come for him to 
leave the secluded regions of Galilee and advance to the cap- 
ital itself, there to announce the kingdom of God and force 
on the decision for which his cause was ripe. Not only a 
chance-collected crowd, but all Israel must hear from his own 
lips what he had to offer, and must choose whether to accept 
it or no. Though man} r of the religious leaders more espe- 
cially had alread}* declared against him, yet he must make the 
whole nation hear his appeal and choose whether it would for- 
sake its ambitious dreams, forsake its soulless forms and 
worship of the letter, and accept the kingdom of God he 
preached with all its inexhaustible spiritual blessings. The 
city of the Lord, the heart of Israel, was the appointed place 
for this great trial, and the thrice-glorious festival of the 
Passover was the appointed time. For there and then, what 
with the worshippers that came from every part of Palestine 
and the pilgrims that streamed in from "the dispersion," the 
people might be said to be present collectively. 

So far Jesus doubtless carried with him the hearty appro- 
bation of his friends. Where but at Jerusalem, when but at 
the great feast, should the kingdom of the Messiah be estab- 
lished ? But this was not in all respects what their Master 
anticipated. When he reached Jerusalem, as he went on to 
explain to them, the chances would be still heavier against 
him than in Galilee. He would have no choice but to assert 
his utmost claims at once and risk every thing ; so that failure 
would involve the most disastrous results, and would be al- 
most sure to cost him his life. Of course he could not be 
certain of the issue. He was certain of one thing only ; and 
that was that whatever came to pass would be the will of God, 
and that even the saddest result in the eyes of men would 
become under God's ruling power the most blessed both for 
him and for the kingdom of God. But at that moment, as he 



CONFLICT AND TRIUMPH FORESEEN. 327 

declared to his disciples, he full} 7 expected that his preaching 
would find no entrance and wake no echo in the hearts of the 
great majority ; that his efforts would meet with no sympathy 
and no support ; and that when once rejected, and accused by 
the authorities of attacking the ancestral religion, he would 
paj T for his failure with his life. 

He tried in many waj'S to show them how probable it was 
that- such a fate was impending over him. Jerusalem was 
the great school of orthodoxy ; and the hostile encounter he 
had already had with the Scribes who came thence to Galilee 
to observe and question him, showed him distinctly enough 
what he had to expect in the capital itself, and its significance 
could hardly have been missed by the disciples. 1 As for the 
Sadducees, who held the helm of the state, they were so sel- 
fishly and doggedly conservative that they would certainly do 
their best to put the reformer, with his promise of God's king- 
dom, as quickly as possible out of the way. The general pub- 
lic, alas ! was too shallow and fickle to be in airy way relied 
upon. And were not his recent experiences — the repeated 
necessity of retreat, and the threats to which his very life had 
been exposed — a significant prelude to what was yet in store ? 
Above all, did not his predecessor's fate foreshadow his own? 
And did not sacred history show by the common fate of the 
prophets of old that such an issue of his labors, such a recep- 
tion of the word of God he uttered, was but natural ? 2 Let 
them consult the Scripture, and they would find that the ser- 
vant of the Lord would be scorned by every one, that the 
shepherd would be smitten, and much more that pointed in 
the same direction. Would it not prove to be the will of God 
that the Messiah should go to the City of the Temple, that he 
should join in open conflict with the established powers, and 
that he, being the weaker, should fall? 

Yes, fall ! but not for ever. 

Such, we imagine, was the drift of many long discourses 
addressed by Jesus to his faithful friends. He wished to lead 
them by the way which he had trodden to the conclusion he 
had reached. He could not give up all hopes that when the 
crisis came the assembled people might } T et make the blessed 
choice ; that God might incline their hearts to him and bring 
wondrous things to pass : but he felt that he must firmly push 
these hopes into the background, and on his own account, as 
well as that of his friends, accurately observe and resolutely 
1 Ompare pp. 124, 275 ff. 2 See pp. 48, 292. 



328 CONFLICT AND TRIUMPH FORESEEN. 

insist upon the gloomy prospect of defeat. Not that he was 
shaken for a moment in his determination to go up to Jerusa- 
lem ! On that point he was resolved, though he must walk 
right into the lion's den. Nay, even if he had had no single 
gleam of hope, if he had known with infallible certaint}^ that 
it would cost his life, — even then he must and would have gone. 
Where dut^y commanded, where God called, there he knew no 
fear or hesitation ; there no sacrifice was too heavy for him. 
He had alwa3 T s taken every reasonable precaution against 
danger, and had on several occasions retreated to av r oid his 
enemies ; but it was for the Messianic kingdom and not for 
his own sake that he had spared his life, and now he was 
ready to risk it in that same cause. He commended the re- 
sult to God, and knew that it was in good hands. 

He had not the shadow of a doubt that if his blood must be 
poured out it would only be as the price that must be paid for 
the establishment of the kingdom and the inauguration of 
the blessed age. The obstinate resistance offered to the truth 
he preached would put an end to itself at the moment that it 
struck him down, and his rejection would lead to his suprem- 
acy. And so, however sad the subject of which he spoke to 
his friends might sometimes appear, the conclusion was never 
a gloomy one. Let the clouds gather never so darkly, there 
was alwaj^s light behind them. Whatever vicissitudes and 
conflicts awaited him, his triumph would be sure and speedy ! 
God, the almighty Father, was faithful ; and if for a moment 
he appeared to be defeated, it would soon be seen that his 
apparent defeat was his real victory. After three da} T s * he 
would rise again from his fall. 

Such was ever the conclusion of his discourses on this sub- 
ject. Trodden under foot he would soon rise again, and rise 
victorious. But this was not enough to reconcile his friends 
to the prospect of a temporary defeat. A Messiah rejected 
by his people was an idea that flatly contradicted all their 
opinions and beliefs ; was an insoluble riddle, an inexpli- 
cable contradiction, a simple impossibility. Their Messiah 
— and there was no other ! — was to be a king ; and God , 
the Lord, would make all his adversaries bow before him, or 
would crush them to powder ! But though they exchanged 
perplexed and astonished glances, none of them dared to 
speak but one. It was the same who a short time before had 
made himself the mouthpiece of them all, and had been the 
first to take the name of Messiah on his lips. Had Simon, 

1 Compare p. 275, and Hosea vi. 2; 2 Kings xx. 5, 8; Matthew xxvi. 61.. 



CONFLICT AND TRIUMPH FORESEEN. 329 

listening intently to his Master, caught something in his tone, 
some indescribable indication in his manner, that gave him 
courage to speak? Did he feel by a kind of inspiration, he 
knew not how, that Jesus himself had had great difficulty in 
believing and accepting it as a fact that suffering and death 
in all probability awaited him, the future Messiah? At any 
rate he could not let such words pass unchallenged, and took 
the first opportunity of endeavoring to bring Jesus to other 
thoughts. He drew him aside, and, forgetting even the re- 
spect he owed to him, began to take him seriously to task. 
" God forbid it ! " he cried. " No, Lord ! this shall not be ; 
indeed it shall not ! " He was far from wishing Jesus to 
abandon his intention of going to Jerusalem, but he wished 
him to banish these gloomy forebodings. Why should he keep 
forcing himself to think that he might have to sacrifice his 
life in the good cause ? He was not onfy giving himself need- 
less pain, but was showing a want of trust that might pro- 
duce disastrous results. He must look for better things, and 
as the Anointed of the Lord must prepare himself for a very 
different fate from that — But Jesus would not let him 
finish. He shook him off impetuously, and turning his back 
upon him cried, " Out of my sight, Satan ! You are a stumb- 
ling-block to me, for you seek not the will of God, but the 
things desired by men." 

Wiry all this vehemence ? When have we ever seen him 
so severe before? It was in self-preservation that he spoke. 
He felt that, unless he flung awa} T the thought at once with all 
the power he could muster, the temptation might become too 
strong for him. For his conception of the future was but 
new even to himself, and he had only gained it at the cost of 
a hard-won victory over himself. And so when Simon, over- 
looking the demands of a stern sense of duty, overlooking 
God's call to self-sacrifice for the kingdom's sake, threw in 
his voice with the selfish longing for life, for power, for en- 
jo3 T ment, and would confirm the national prejudices of the 
Jews as to the Messiah and his kingdom, it seemed to him 
as though the Evil One himself had crept up to his side to 
seduce him into falsehood to himself and disobedience to God. 
And his apprehension of the toilsome, painful task that he 
expected was so great, his natural inclinations were pleading 
so strongly with him already, that he feared the unhallowed 
counsel of his friend might draw him but too easily aside 
should he permit himself to hear it. So by one firm, quick 
stroke he silenced the tempter's voice, and was rescued ! 



330 CONFLICT AND TRIUMPH FORESEEN. 

He was safe for ever against the danger that had threat- 
ened him at that moment. Never again would any of his 
disciples strive to divert the current of his thoughts. Once 
more, while still in Galilee, he spoke in the same strain or 
dark presentiment. The first Gospel says that the disciples 
were sad, the other two that they could not understand him ; 
but in either case the}- dared not question him again. 1 And 
so what seemed but now to be his vulnerable point was cov- 
ered against all future attacks b} T that one brief but glorious 
effort. His apprehension rather increased than diminished ; 
but after his victory over what was perhaps the severest 
temptation of his life, his self-surrender to the Father's will 
was more complete than ever. 

We need not wonder that even when Jesus was no longer 
with the Twelve alone, but was addressing a wider circle of 
his followers, his preaching henceforth bore the unmistakable 
impress of what had occurred within the closer circle. He 
was more urgent than ever in his demand for complete self- 
consecration and self-- sacrifice, and at the same time he 
opened out the prospect of the richest compensation and the 
fulfilment of the fairest hopes in the immediate future. " If 
any one will come after me, let him den}' himself and take 
up his cross and follow me ! For whosoever seeks to save 
his life shall lose it, but whosoever loses his life shall find it. 
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world if he 
lose his own soul in gaining it? Or what can a man give in 
ransom for his soul ? For if any one is ashamed of me and 
of my words in the midst of this adulterous and sinful gen- 
eration, the Son of Man shall be ashamed of him when he 
comes with the light of his Father's glory shining about him 
and surrounded by the holy angels ! " 2 When he comes ! — 
And when would he come? " I tell you of a truth there are 
some here present who shall witness it ; some who shall see 
with their own eyes the Son of Man coming in all his kingly 
splendor ! " It was a glorious promise to his faithful fol- 
lowers ! 

These sayings of Jesus to his trusted companions, or to 
the wider circle of his followers, are preserved with varying 
degrees of accurac} T b} T the several Gospels. Thus Matthew, 
instead of simply making the Son of Man refuse to recognize 
as his own those who dare not declare in his favor now, 
makes him appear as the judge of all the world and " recom 

i Matthew xvii. 22, 23 (Mark ix. 30-32; Luke ix. 43-45). 
2 See pp. 176, 187-190. 



CONFLICT AND TRIUMPH FORESEEN. 331 

pense every man according to his works." This ascription 
of the office of judge to the Messiah is of later origin, and is 
entirely foreign to the ideas of Jesus himself. Luke and 
Mark, on the other hand, substitute the coming of the king- 
dom of God for that of the Son of Man. In all alike the 
form of the sayings is affected by subsequent events. Thus 
the}' speak of " bearing the cross;" 1 they understand the 
expectation which Jesus expressed of a final triumph as 
though it were a prophecy of his own resurrection from the 
realm of shades, which is certainly a misconception ; and 
above all they make Jesus not only anticipate sufferings in 
general, but specifically and emphatically predict his condem- 
nation by the Sanhedrim ; and they make him not only look 
upon his death as possible, but announce it as irrevocably 
decreed by God. Now we know that as a fact he cherished 
to the very last some faint hopes, though ever fainter, that 
such a sacrifice might not be required of him. Indeed the 
constant recurrence of these hopes furnishes the only possible 
explanation of the complete failure of all his warnings to 
produce airy real impression on his friends, who magnified 
the hopes, set aside the apprehensions, and to the very last 
fully expected a brilliant victory. It is even possible that 
we have ourselves represented the Master's anticipations as 
moie uniformly gloonvy than they really were ; and at any 
rate we may safely assume that brighter expectations and 
more cheerful hopes from time to time relieved his sad fore- 
bodings. But all this affects little more than the form of 
these sayings. Their substance is certainly genuine. 

But what does all this mean? We are told in the same 
breath that Jesus is the Messiah, and that in all probability 
sufferings and death await him ! The disciples might well 
be amazed ; and we too may ask with them, Can these two 
things by any possibility be reconciled ? What comes of the 
Messiahship of Jesus ? Is it a mere phantom ? The king- 
dom of heaven, as we know, was to be established here on 
earth. Was it, after all, to have no human king? In that 
case there would be no Messiah ; and how could Jesus be 
the Messiah if there was none? 

Our Gospels offer a solution of this riddle which appears 
to us when first we hear it so strange as to be absolutely 
impossible to accept. We have come across it in the last- 
mentioned utterances of Jesus, in which he is made to say, 

1 See p. 189 



332 CONFLICT AND TRIUMPH FORESEEN. 

" Though I should die, I come again ; and then I come as the 
Messiah. I come again with heavenly glory ; and then shall 
the kingdom of God be perfected." Now we know that the 
Apostles and all the Christians of the first centuiy looked 
forward with the firmest trust and the most fervent longing 
to the return of Jesus to assume the Messiahship. There is 
hardly a page of the New Testament that does not mention 
this expectation. But did Jesus himself share it? Can he 
who was so free from all fanaticism, from all capricious ex- 
cesses of the fancy, can he have imagined such a thing to be 
true ? It is certain, at any rate, that few of his utterances 
on this subject have come down to us unaltered ; for oral 
tradition, which delighted in busying itself in this matter 
above all others, has sometimes disguised them past recogni- 
tion, and very often modified them. 1 But their number is so 
great that we can hardly set them all aside, and the authen- 
ticity of some few can scarcely be questioned. The unanim- 
ity of the apostolic tradition, too, is best explained on the 
supposition that the Master not only foretold the triumph of 
his cause and the advent of the kingdom of God in spite of 
the violence of the opposition and in consequence of his own 
devotion, but also spoke of his own personal share in the 
triumph and joy of the kingdom, even should his life be 
sacrificed in founding it. We must indeed admit that with- 
out some such return his title and dominion, his connection 
with his work, his followers, and his kingdom would be little 
more than nominal. And when we look at it more closely, 
the thought, tk I shall come again!" is not so unnatural 
as it appeared, and is at any rate far from fanatical. We 
must begin by putting completely on one side our own con- 
ception of an eternal life of all the pious dead in heaven. 
This idea was quite foreign to the Israelites in the time of 
Jesus, as well as previously. Heaven they regarded as the 
dwelling-place of God and of the angels only ; or if by a rare 
exception some very few of the sons of men dwelt there, it 
was but for a time. The dead went down to the realm of 
shades, whence, when the kingdom of God was established, 
the pious would rise to live here on earth once more. Nor 
have we any reason to suppose that Jesus himself believed 
in the endless abode of all the pious in heaven rather than 
in their renewed life upon earth ; for as far as such modes 
of thought and conception are concerned, he too was a child 
of his times. Now a belief had prevailed over since the 

1 Compare John xxi. 23; 2 Thessalonians ii. 1 ff. 



CONFLICT AND TRIUMPH FORESEEN. 333 

Maccabsean war of independence, and had been greatly 
strengthened b}' the insurrection of Judas the Galihean, that 
loss of life in the service of the Lord was the sure way to a 
glorious resurrection at the dawn of the golden age. 1 Bear- 
ing all this in mind, can we wonder that when Jesus had 
resolved to take up the task and assume the dignhty of the 
Messiah, when he foresaw or at least suspected that the king- 
dom of heaven must in all likelihood be founded in his blood, 
he said to himself and his friends, lt When all is finished I 
shall come again, and then it will be as the Messiah"? 

But it may still be asked, Suppose Jesus did believe that 
in case he must die he would yet return to earth before his 
own generation had died out, where did he suppose that he 
would be between the hour of his death and that of his return ? 
This brings us to a very difficult question. We have sup- 
posed, in opposition to very man}' and very excellent scholars, 
that Jesus entertained and uttered the belief that in any case 
he should personalty share the glories of the heavenly king- 
dom here on earth, — should be the first of its citizens, 
reverenced by all the rest as their leader. But it does not 
follow that he realty used the language almost always attri- 
buted to him in the New Testament : "I shall come again in 
d'vine splendor on the clouds." 

We dare not give a decided answer to the question 
whether Jesus ever used such expressions as this. Inasmuch 
a! i Scripture and tradition declared that Enoch, Moses, and 
Elijah had been provisionally received 03- God into heaven, 
it is possible that Jesus really expected not to remain in the 
realm of shades, but to be taken into heaven till his return 
to earth. It appears that the early Christians extended the 
privilege to all their martyrs. If Jesus realty cherished such 
a hope, it was probably dictated by his longing for a life of 
unbroken communion with God. In this case, the Gospels 
are correct in making him speak of his return, not fiom the 
realms of the dead, but from on high. 

But again, this belief in the return of Jesus was the central 
point round which all the thoughts, the hopes, and the efforts 
of the apostolic age revolved ; and, since the belief in the 
Master's resurrection from the shadow-land and ascension to 
heaven naturally carried with it the conception of his return 
from the realms of glory rather than from the shadow-land, it 
is very possible that the anticipation of that event was fiiot 
put into his lips in its present form in the apostolic age, since 

1 Daniel xii. 2, 3 ; 2 Maccabees vii. 9, 14. 23 ; compare Matthew xvi. 25. 



334 CONFLICT AND TRIUMPH FORESEEN. 

the Christians could not suffer the smallest difference of belief 
on so important a subject to subsist between themselves and 
their Master. In favor of this opinion, it may be urged that 
we never find any direct indication that Jesus supposed him- 
self to be an exception to the general rule in this respect. 
Another reason for doubting whether his thoughts were ever 
definitely engaged on this subject, and whether he distinctly 
declared, "The Son of Man shall come upon the clouds, in 
the light of his Father's glory," ma}' be found in the fact that 
to the last he retained some hope of seeing his efforts crowned 
with success without the bitter extremity of trial. We are 
therefore unable to determine the extent to which tradition 
has worked up or modified his utterances on this subject. 
But we may safely declare that he confided his own future, as 
well as all things else, in perfect trust to the Father. 

We have now concluded a survey which throws considera- 
ble light upon some of the sajings of the last period of the 
preaching of Jesus. Let us glance back over it, and compare 
it with the results of our former inquiries as to the gospel of 
the kingdom which he preached at his first appearance and 
during the earlier period of his Galilean ministry. 1 On mak- 
ing this comparison, it is impossible to deny that the unfavor- 
able reception Jesus had met, in such sharp contrast to the 
first appearance of success, disappointed him so bitterly as to 
cause an inevitable change in his conduct, his plans, and his 
prospects, and to place his person and his preaching before 
us in quite a different light from that in which they appeared 
during those early months. He still appears as pure, as 
great, as exalted as ever, and indeed his figure seems still 
bolder and more striking than before ; but something of the 
winning gentleness is gone. At first his preaching had been 
" glad tidings" in the fullest sense ; but at the close of his 
career, on the way to Jerusalem, in the City of the Temple, 
warnings and threatenings take an ever more prominent place 
in his teaching, and the last judgment, which he had pre- 
viously passed over almost in silence, is the frequent topic of 
his discourses. 2 He had previously laid chief stress upon the 
preparation, upon the gradual establishment of the kingdom 
of God, upon the imperceptible conquests of his new princi- 
ple in the hearts of men until it leavened all societ}' ; but 
now the consummation by an act of God, — a great revolution 
in the world, carrying terror to the unbelievers and the uncon- 

1 See p. 151. 2 Compare pp. 259, 279, 301-303, and chap, xxviii. p. 347 



ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 335 

verted, — comes into prominence. In that day he is to come 
again, to receive his spiritual supremacy, no longer disputed 
by an}* creature, and unlimited by time or space. 

There is an unquestionable loss involved in this change, 
but it is compensated by the heroism of the deed that Jesus 
was resolved to do. It was a giant's task which he laid upon 
himself when he resolved to make the kingdom come. But 
he did not shrink from the supreme sacrifice. He never lost 
his faith in God, in himself, in humanity, or in the future, 
He had resolved to be the Messiah, and straightway to 
establish the Messianic kingdom. 

To Jerusalem, then ! 



Chapter XXVII. 

ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 

Mark X. 1-31 ; Luke XIII. 22-25. 1 

MOST likely Jesus and his friends only stayed a short 
time in the extreme north of the land. Thence they 
returned to Capernaum ; but Jesus neither preached nor made 
liimself known in any of the cities or villages through which 
they passed. He desired to remain unknown, both to avoid 
the risk of being harassed by his enemies, and to enjoy the 
opportunity of uninterrupted intercourse with the Twelve. 
We can easily guess the subjects to which his conversation 
and teaching were now principally addressed.' 2 

His public ministry in Galilee was now at an end. He 
seems to have spent a few days at Capernaum again, perhaps 
to arrange his affairs or take leave of his friends before setting 
out on his journey ; but even there we only find him in the 
company of his disciples, and no longer addressing the multi- 
kides. He had some hard but very needful lessons still to 
teach his friends. For instance, when they were disputing 
for precedence in the approaching kingdom of God, he 
rebuked their self-assertion and petty jealousy, and com- 
manded them to put away these headstrong thoughts and 
become simple and receptive as children , — dwelling at the 
same time, with the strongest emphasis, on the high dignity 

1 Matthew xix; Luke xviii. .15-30. 2 Mark ix. 33 a, 30, 31. 



336 ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 

and worth of " the little ones." Here the Gospels insert his 
warnings against " causes of offence ; " that is to nay, every 
unhallowed connection that had been or might be contracted, 
every evil disposition which had been cherished or suffered to 
exist, — every thing, in short, which might lead to faithless- 
ness and desertion of the good cause. Here, too, they place 
among other sayings his exhortations to unbounded forgive- 
ness. 1 

After this, he left his native country never to see it more. 
The general stream of pilgrims from Galilee usually took the 
shortest way to Jerusalem, through Engannim, Shechem, and 
Ephraim, about three days' journey ; but Jesus preferred the 
more circuitous route through Persea. We can only guess 
his reason, It can hardly have been the dread of rough 
treatment from the Samaritans, still less any aversion to 
them. Nor can it have been a desire to avoid the numerous 
caravans of Galileans journeying to the City of the Temple 
in high- wrought expectanc3 T and with cries of joy and triumph ; 
for though on these occasions there were alwa}*s some who 
took the opportunity of visiting Jerusalem a few weeks before 
the feast, yet the great mass of pilgrims only came when it 
was close at hand, — and we have reason to suppose that it was 
quite early in the spring as yet. But there was time enough 
to take the less frequented way ; and since Jesus was anxious 
to avoid all possibility of exciting popular commotions on his 
journey, the present disposition of his followers seemed to 
make it unadvisable for him to pass through the thickty 
populated district of southern Galilee. 

For he was now surrounded, not only by his little circle of 
friends, but by a more considerable band of followers, proba- 
bly drawn for the most part from the cities of the lake, and 
including several women.' 2 Their number was not large, and 
Jesus had not drawn them together purposely ; but they had 
hardly heard of his intended journey before they resolved to 
accompany him. Was he going to Jerusalem? Then they 
would go there too. Now such an escort was in many ways 
desirable, and indeed the Master's personal safety almost 
demanded it ; but it required watchful supervision, for it was 
obvious to them all that some extraordinary event was in the 
immediate future. Though Jesus had strictly forbidden the 
Twelve to speak of him as the future Messiah, yet it was easy 
to observe a significant change in their bearing towards him 

1 See pp. 191, 160-163, 174; compare also Matthew v. 29, 30. 

2 Matthew xx. 17, xxvii. 55 ; Luke xix. 37, xxiii. 49. 



ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 337 

and in the wa}* in which the}" spoke of him to others ; nor did 
Jesus himself attempt to conceal from his followers that the 
highest interests were involved in this journey, and that it 
stood in some immediate connection with the coming of the 
kingdom of God. So the brightest expectations filled their 
hearts as they went with him to Jerusalem. Would the 
Messianic age, of which he himself had foretold the speedy 
advent with such emphasis and in such consoling words, now 
really come? 

Since we have no trustwortlry information whatever as to 
the time at which Jesus left Galilee or at which he arrived at 
the capital, we must be content with mere conjectures. Now 
various conversations and occurrences are reported as taking 
place in the course of the journe}', which seem to show that 
it was b}' no means hurried. And again, we can hardly force 
all that occurred at Jerusalem into the space of a single week. 
It appears, therefore, that Jesus wisely determined to be in 
the city some three weeks at least before the festival, in order 
to make himself acquainted with the ground, and to establish 
himself firmly there before the . great streams of pilgrims 
poured into Jerusalem. Most of these pilgrims came a week 
in advance, in order to observe certain ceremonies of so-called 
purification ; and for Jesus and his company to arrive at the 
same time might have been dangerous, considering the gen- 
eral excitement that prevailed. It seemed advisable on every 
ground to be beforehand. 

For these reasons we may suppose that it was more than a 
month before the Passover when Jesus embarked at Caper- 
naum and crossed the lake. Disembarking on the south- 
eastern coast, he passed through Hippus into the valley of 
the Jordan, which he followed southwards with the river on 
his right, until, just above Beth-Haran, he reached the ford 
on the way to Jericho, from which the city was about two 
hours' journey distant. So far it had not been a pleasant 
journey. The floor of the Jordan Valley is from seven to ten 
miles broad, and something over sixty miles in length, from 
the lake of Gennesareth to the Dead Sea. It lies so low that 
in summer the heat is unendurable. Even in the evening and 
at night the close and heavy atmosphere is hardly cooled, 
and the whole appearance of the valley is parched and dry. 
It was, therefore, for the most part thinly populated and far 
from fertile. In the early spring-time, however, as the river 
poured its boisterous waters to the south and often overflowed 
its banks, the region may have seemed far fresher and more 

VOL. III. 15 



338 ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 

pleasant than in summer ; but even then it can have had but 
little life or variety to displa}*, while the two long chains of 
white and barren limestone rocks that skirted it on either side 
shut out the prospect everywhere. Not till the traveller 
reached the little plain of Jericho, about eight miles long and 
two and a half across, was the monotony of his journey re- 
lieved by a delightful surprise. Here the eye rested all at 
once on a spot most richly blessed by Nature. It was full of 
beautiful pleasure-grounds, where the luxuriance and variety 
of the flowers rivalled the richness of the pasturage and the 
excellence of the trees and shrubs. In a word, it was known 
throughout the world as a little paradise. 

As Jesus passed through the monotonous valley and the 
smiling plain, who shall say what a host of thoughts crowded 
into his mind ! When last he sought the regions of the south- 
ern Jordan, it was to hear the Baptist before his own minis- 
try began. It was hardly more than a few months ago, but 
it seemed like a lifetime, so much had happened in the inter- 
val ! And now, how vividly his predecessor stood before him 
once again, preaching of the judgment ! But as to all those 
reminiscences our Gospels preserve the profoundest silence. 
They tell us only of the glances Jesus cast into the future and 
the occurrences upon the journey. All these we should have 
to place on the soil of Juclah itself were we literally to follow 
the first and second Gospels. But this representation can 
hardly be correct. We shall give the several events in the 
order in which the}' occur in the Gospels, but shall set aside 
as wholly unworthy of credit the statement that Jesus ad- 
dressed the people here also " as his custom was ? " and healed 
the multitudes that followed him. Moreover, in speaking of 
the task of the Messiah and of the judgment, we shall now 
and then insert a saying of Jesus which the Gospels give 
elsewhere, but which appears to us to fall most suitably into 
this period. 

The first occurrence recorded on the journe}' is a hostile 
encounter with certain Pharisees, who either lived in Persea 
or were passing through it with a purpose similar to that of 
Jesus himself. They had doubtless heard how audaciously 
Jesus attacked the holy commandments, and either to con- 
vince themselves personally of the truth of the report, or else 
on purpose to involve him in opposition to the Law, they 
asked him, "Is it allowable for a man to put away his * 
rife?" 



ON THE WAT TO JERUSALEM. 339 

Why did the}' select this point of attack above all others: 
It appears that Jesus had alreacty expressed himself on the 
subject with publicity and emphasis. At an} r rate Luke has 
preserved a detached saying referring to it which has also 
found its way into the Sermon en the Mount, m the series of 
contrasts between the old and t'ie new principles which we 
have already examined. 1 It is there provided with the usual 
introduction, and runs: "It has been said, ' Whoever puts 
away his wife must give her a bill of divorce.' 2 But I say 
that whoever puts awaj T his wife is the cause of the adul- 
tery that he who afterwards marries her commits with her." 8 
The law and usage of Israel on the subject of divorce had 
been instituted to check still grosser excesses of Oriental 
licentiousness ; and how deeply the moral sense of Jesus must 
have been revolted by seeing that they were made the excuse 
for unheard-of levit}', — nay, for shameless immorality in con- 
tracting and dissolving marriage ! The text of Deuteronomy 
referred to allowed of divorce in case a man had discovered 
" any thing improper" in his wife ; and since this expression 
is exceedingly elastic, the Scribes were far from unanimous as 
to its interpretation. Shammai and his followers held that 
divorce was never allowable except when a wife had been un- 
faithful to her husband ; but others thought that her appear- 
ance in the street without a veil, or with her neck bare, was 
enough. Hillel and his followers actually maintained that a 
man might divorce his wife if she burned his dinner or made 
it too salt ; and Rabbi Akiba, one of Hillel's most celebrated 
successors, thought it reason enough for a man to divorce his 
wife if he preferred another woman ! In any case the hus- 
band was the sole judge of his own cause, and the wife could 
never demand a separation. Of this last fact Mark, who was 
better acquainted with Roman than with Jewish habits in 
this matter, was not aware. 4 We may imagine how women 
were humiliated by such customs, how deeply the institution 
of marriage was degraded, and what fatal results to education 
and domestic life must necessarily follow. 

Jesus, as we should have expected, had a very decided an- 
swer ready for these Pharisees: "Have you never read in 
the Scripture that the Creator made man male and female in 
the beginning, and said, ' Therefore shall a man forsake his 
father and mother to cleave to his wife ; and these two shall 

1 See pp. 226 ff. 2 Deuteronomy xxiv. 1. 

8 Luke xvi. 18; Matthew v. 31, 32, after an amended text. 
* Mark x. 12. 



340 ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 

be one ' ? l They are inseparably one, and the caprice of man 
may not sever those whom the will of God has joined ! " But 
this appeal to the state of things before the promulgation of 
the Law neither silenced nor convinced the Pharisees. "Then 
would 3 r ou have it go for nothing," the} T retorted sharply, 
' ' that Moses expressly ordained divorce bj means of a writ- 
ten bill?" " It was only because of }'our dulness of soul," 
said Jesus, in a tone of lofty rebuke, " that Moses permitted 
you to put away your wives. It was not so in the beginning 
And I tell } T ou, whoever puts awa} 7 his wife and marries an- 
other is an adulterer ; and so is any one who marries a woman 
that her husband has divorced." 

The Pharisees withdrew in indignation at this audacious 
rupture with the Law of the Lord. But even the disciples, 
among whom Simon was certainly not the only married man, 
were astonished and alarmed. This need not surprise us. 
Perhaps when Jesus had spoken on the subject before they 
had paid no special attention to what he said. At any rate, 
they had never before seen the matter in the light in which 
he had put it now, and his rule was in direct contradiction to 
public opinion and to all the usages of society. We can 
easily see that it was dictated by a veiy lofty conception of 
marriage itself, and was inspired b} r a deep faith in mankind 
and in the future. With his eye upon the approaching king- 
dom of God, Jesus could no longer consent to a compromise, 
or make terms with an unclean passion. 2 Early Christianity, 
however, which fell so far short of the Master's exaltation of 
spirit, soon thought it necessaiy to temper the strictness 
of his command ; and in two of the four passages that refer 
to the subject (the two which occur in Matthew) , the abso- 
lute prohibition of divorce is modified by the insertion of the 
words, "unless the woman has committed adultery." This 
reservation, which was quite at variance with the intention of 
Jesus, produced a corresponding change in the question of 
the Pharisees, who were now made to ask whether a man 
might put away his wife "for ever}' cause." The Roman 
Catholic Church, on the contrary, maintains, at least in the- 
ory, that marriage cannot be annulled. But to return to the 
disciples. In the first Gospel we are told that when the con- 
troversy was over the}' said to the Master, " If it is true that 
a man can never under any circumstances put awa}' his wife, 
the most prudent course is not to marry at all ! " Jesus did 
not stay to refute this timorous deduction, but gave a fresh 
1 Genesis ii. 24. 2 Compare p. 227 



ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 



341 



turn to the discourse by admitting that in some eases, apart 
from those in which marriage was physically impossible, it 
might be best to abstain from it. It might be a necessary 
sacrifice to the kingdom of God. There had been and there 
still were those whom a deep sense of their own special mis- 
sion urged to sacrifice wedded love, domestic happiness, and 
all the pleasures of life in order that the}' might consecrate 
their undivided powers to the highest interests of man. But 
for this a special sense of duty, a special strength of will and 
intensity of faith, and great self-command and self-denial 
were needed. 

So said Jesus ; and we listen to his words on this subject 
with extremest interest. It need hardly be said that, though 
he appealed to the authority of the Scripture in his contro- 
versy with the Pharisees, yet the views of marriage which 
brought him once more into conflict with the religion of his 
people were not founded upon a text of the Bible. On the 
contrary, if the text in Genesis was for him, that in Deuter- 
onomy was against him ! It was in view of man's original 
disposition, which revealed the Creator's will, that he main- 
tained the purely moral nature and the divine origin of mar- 
riage, and as a consequence its sanctity and indissolubility. 
From this the dignit} T and rights of woman and the lofty sig- 
nificance and function of family life follow as a natural conse- 
quence. But in the same breath, as it were, with which he 
maintains all this, he goes on to demand inexorably the sac- 
rifice of every thing, if need be, to principle. On this very 
journey we catch the echo both of his high appreciation of 
domestic life and of his conviction that all things must be 
sacrificed for the kingdom of God's sake. 

His experiences upon the way were not always painful. 
Thus we are told that once, when he had gone into a house, 
certain parents came with their children in their arms or 
walking at their sides. It was easy to see what they wanted. 
Sometimes parents would bring their children to the syna- 
gogue for the superintendent or one of the rabbis to ask a 
blessing on their heads ; and so these people had brought 
their little ones to the prophet of Nazareth with a feeling that 
the very touch of such a holy man of God must have some 
special power in it. But the disciples, who were beginning 
to feel their own importance and who would not have their 
Master disturbed for such a trivial cause, turned them away 
with some harshness ; and they were just going back disap- 
pointed, when fortunately Jesus saw what was taking place. 



342 ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 



He was exceedingly displeased with his disciples, and said, 
" Let the children come to me and forbid them not ! Verily 
the kingdom of heaven is of such as the}^.'' When he had 
thus rebuked the disciples, the parents came boldly to him, 
and he took the little ones upon his knee or in his arms, and 
embraced them and kissed them. Then he laid his hands 
upon them, and prayed for a blessing on them, and sent them 
away happy. 

" The kingdom of heaven is of such as they." What did 
he mean by these words ? He may have meant that — sad 
experience having taught him how dull of heart the grown-up 
people round him were — his chief hopes for the kingdom of 
God were now built upon the rising generation, whose inno- 
cence and freedom from prejudice made them so precious in 
the heavenly Father's e}'e. Or else, as Mark and Luke would 
have it, he meant that no one can enter into the kingdom of 
God unless he becomes as simple as a child. On more than 
one occasion when Jesus speaks of children, it is exceedingly 
difficult to say whether he means to be understood literally 
or only refers to the simple, the weak, the lowly, and those 
of whom the world takes no account. 1 In any case, this 
winning scene of Jesus blessing the little children crowns 
and confirms his views of marriage and domestic life. 



L cr 



But most of the conversations and occurrences of this jour 
ney had, as we should expect, some direct reference to the 
kingdom of God. Inasmuch as the disciples' minds were 
filled with thoughts of the great events now near at hand, 
their disposition could not fail to exercise an influence upon 
those with whom they came in contact. Thus a certain man 
once came to Jesus and asked him, anxiously, whether there 
were not very few who would be saved at the last judgment 
and would share the salvation of the Messianic age. His 
answer was an exhortation to all who heard him to increased 
moral effort. "Strive with all your might to gain an en- 
trance at the narrow door ; for I tell you that many shall 
seek in vain to enter by it. When the master of the house 
has received his guests and welcomed them, and has risen 
and closed the door, then j t ou may begin to knock from out- 
side, and cry, ' Lord ! open to us ! ' but he will answer, ' I 
know not whence you are ! ' " 

On another occasion, when a question of similar import 
was addressed to him, his answer showed that the effort he 
i See pp. 163, 174. 



ON THE WAT TO JERUSALEM. 343 

required included the voluntary renunciation of every thing 
which could hold back the heart from its sacred mission. 
The circumstances were as follows : He was met upon his 
waj T b} r one who bowed down before him reverently and said, 
" Good Master, what must I do to secure eternal life in the 
kingdom of God ? " There was something in the words them- 
selves, or in the man who uttered them, which pleased Je- 
sus, — something which spoke of straightforward purhVy and 
simplicity, earnestness and trust ; but there was also a certain 
air of self-satisfaction about the man, which argued a super- 
ficial conception on his part of the requirements of the moral 
life, and warned Jesus against making the smallest concession 
to his weakness. So he began b} T condemning the careless 
use of such a word as good, which, rightly considered, implied 
nothing less than absolute perfection : " Why do you call me 
good? No one is good but God. You know the command- 
ments, — not to commit adulter}^ not to murder, not to steal, 
not to bear false witness, to defraud no man, to honor 3 T our 
father and mother." "What did he mean 03^ this answer? 
That every man would be judged according to his light? — or 
that the Ten Commandments, property carried out, embraced 
the whole moral law ? Or did he wish to draw from the other 
a declaration of what his conduct hitherto had been ? How- 
ever this maybe, the man answered, "All this I have 
observed from childhood." The frank, straightforward air 
with which he made this declaration won the heart of Jesus, 
and, in hopes of discovering the man to himself and at the 
same time winning him finally for the kingdom of God, he 
said, with all the force and persuasion of which he was master, 
' ' You still lack one thing. Sell all } T ou have and give the 
mone}* to the poor. Then 3'ou will have a treasure laid up 
for you by God when the kingdom of heaven comes ; and do 
you meanwhile come and follow me." Alas ! the demand 
was too hard for him, for he was very rich. He could not 
break the ties which bound him to the world. He could spare 
much for the great salvation, but not all. Deeply cast down, 
perhaps more at his own weakness than any thing else, he 
went away in a far other frame of mind than that in which 
he had come. 

The version of the story we have given is that of Mark and 
Luke, the latter of whom describes the interrogator as " a 
ruler." Matthew calls him a young man, whence the story is 
commonly described as that of " the rich } T oung man." This 
is not the only point in which the first Gospel departs from 



344 ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 

the others. For instance, it seemed strange, and even 
shocking, that Jesus should have expressly repudiated the 
title of honor, "good," and consequently Matthew simply 
omits it altogether. 1 Again, he laj-s the chief stress upon the 
fulfilment of the precepts of the Law in simple love to one's 
neighbor as the condition of citizenship in the kingdom of 
God, while Mark and Luke emphasize the breaking of all 
worldly ties to follow Jesus. But in the essential points our 
authorities are all agreed. 

Now Jesus had never demanded such a sacrifice before. 
Even the Twelve had never been required to sell their property 
and give awaj T the mone3 T . We must bear it carefully in 
mind that he was by no means uttering a general precept, but 
was speaking with special reference to the individual require- 
ments of the man who stood before him, and to the critical 
importance of the time, which would less than ever brook the 
smallest indecision. It was this that raised his demands so 
high. The e} T e, the hand, the foot that caused offence must 
be plucked out or hewn off.' 2 It seems that the result, in this 
special instance, was a painful disappointment to Jesus him- 
self. At least, when the man was gone he looked round 
upon his disciples and said with a sigh, " How hard it is for 
those that have riches to enter into the kingdom of heaven ! " 
And in answer to their look of amazement he repeated, 
"Beloved, what a mighty effort is required to secure an 
entrance ! 3 I tell 3 ou again, it is easier for a camel to go 
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the 
kingdom of God." " Worse and worse ! " thought the disci- 
ples. "He said it was hard before, but now he says it is 
impossible." " Who will be saved then?" the} T whispered to 
one another in the utmost consternation. Jesus heard, and 
looking significantly upon them said, "Yes; to man it is 
impossible, but not to Gocl ; for every thing is possible 
to God." 

We can see what Jesus meant. These last words express 
the thought which sustained him in all his disappointments, 
and which the experience of his own soul was ever confirm- 
ing. It is, in truth, beyond the power of man to secure for 
himself or others an entrance into the kingdom of heaven ; 
but it is here that God's almighty power is displayed. 
Jesus, however, was not proclaiming the dogma of divine 

1 After an amended text. 

2 Compare pp. 168 ff., 174 ff., 187 ff. 

8 After a better reading of Mark x. 24. 



ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 345 

omnipotence, but was simply stating what the life of his own 
soul had taught him ; namely, that God can enable us to 
make the greatest sacrifices, — to renounce ourselves abso- 
lutely, — to accomplish what would be utterly impossible 
without him ; that the man whose heart God has once stirred 
cannot in the long run resist the impulse of his spirit, the 
impulse of sacred love. He spoke, of course, in part to 
encourage his followers and direct them to man's only refuge 
in conscious weakness and impotence ; but he spoke yet more 
to quicken his own hope, — for he had felt, and surely not for 
the first time, the unhallowed power of gold, and much as he 
longed to rescue this man from his slavery to the world, he 
found that he was powerless. "How man} T good hearts," 
he thought, "are only held back by wealth and distinction 
from joining me ! But God's power, I know, is greater than 
any worldly influence. He can break these chains, and He 
will ! " 

Meanwhile the disciples had partially recovered from their 
consternation, and Peter, perhaps with some lingering hesita- 
tion in his voice, began: "But we have left every thing to 
follow you." It was as though he would saj 7 , " Surely, we 
are safe? " Naturally, Jesus was more than ever inclined at 
this moment to value their devotion ; so he answered, with 
warm affection, "I tell you trulj 7 , every one who has left 
house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or chil- 
dren, or lands, for my sake, shall be compensated many fold 
even now in this present time ; and when the day of salvation 
dawns, he shall receive everlasting life. Then shall many be 
last instead of first, and first instead of last." 

Here again Jesus looks forward into the glorious future. 
Then shall men change their parts, and the world's great ones 
shall be cast down from the seat of honor, while those whom 
the world despises now shall be exalted then by God. After 
what has been said already, 1 we shall not wonder that these 
words also have been misunderstood and tampered with. To 
begin with, the first Gospel makes an addition to Peter's 
question, and gives it thus : ;t But we have left every thing 
to follow thee. What shall we have therefore ? " This addi- 
tion changes the diffident disciple's timorous question into a 
bold and selfish demand for a reward, wmich would have suc- 
ceeded strangely to the anxious exclamation of the disciples 
the moment before, and would certainly have drawn a very 
different answer from Jesus. It is true that Matthew finds a 
i See pp. 331 ft. 
15* 



346 ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 

warning against self-exaltation in the saj r ing about " the first 
and the last," and in the parable of the laborers in the vine- 
3 T ard called at different hours ; 1 but this corrective conies too 
late, and is altogether too weak to balance the express prom- 
ise of glory and blessedness just made to the Twelve. And 
indeed this veiy Gospel heightens the promise in a truly 
remarkable fashion ; for, in contradiction to a saying which 
we shall consider present^, 2 it makes Jesus sanction the 
Jewish-Christian expectations and sa} T : " I tell } t ou that when 
all things are made new, when the Son of Man is seated on 
the throne of his gloiy, you who have followed me shall like- 
wise sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of 
Israel." This saying is also found in another connection 
in the third Gospel, in which we should hardly have expected 
it. 8 Finally, Matthew misunderstands the sense in which 
Jesus spoke of compensation for ever}' sacrifice that his 
disciples made. Jesus spoke of what he knew by experi- 
ence ; 4 namely, that when we have left our old surroundings 
in pain and toil, the new surroundings into which we enter 
more than compensate us ; that the fellowship of many kin- 
dred spirits makes ample amends for the ties of kindred, we 
have had to break for the kingdom of God's sake ; in a word, 
that the joy which God gives to his faithful servants even 
now far outweighs the pain of eveiy voluntary sacrifice. 
But the Evangelist failed to understand him, and omitted the 
words " now in this time," thinking that this new kinship 
and these new possessions referred to the treasures of the 
kingdom of heaven. Mark, on his side, falls into circum- 
locutions and repetitions, and adds, from the experience of 
his own times, " with persecutions" for the Gospel's sake. 

Thus we see how determined the early Christians were to 
force the Master's words into agreement with their own ideas 
and experience upon this point, if upon no other. 

i See p. 296. 2 See pp. 351, 352. 

« Luke xxii. 30. 4 Compare pp. 240. 241. 



ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM 347 



Chapter XXVIII. 

ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 

( Continued.) 

Luke XII. 49-53, 57-59, XIII. 1-9, XI. 24-26, XIX. 1-10; 
Matthew XX. 17-34.1 

EVEN if we had no direct indications or accounts of such 
a thing, we should suspect from what we know of the 
gloomy forebodings entertained lry Jesus that he often had 
moments of deep depression in the course of this journey. 
Sometimes it was the probable result to himself of all his 
efforts that afflicted him ; sometimes the fearful judgment that 
his people were drawing upon themselves ; sometimes the great 
strain and ferment which he himself was causing. Did not 
his gospel hurl the torch of dissension among his contempo- 
raries ? And what a sharp contrast was offered by this fact 
to the sweet hopes he himself had formerly cherished and the 
fair, bright anticipations still entertained by his followers. 
And was he not constantly compelled himself to insist on the 
rupture of the tenderest and holiest ties? The kingdom of 
peace and love promised by the prophets would surely come, 
but who could say after how long and how terrible a struggle ? 
Listen how he poured out his heart to his friends ! 

"I am come to bring fire into the world. What shall 
I do then ? Would that it were already kindled ! But I 
have a baptism with which to be baptized, and how am I 
troubled till it be over ! Do you think that I have come to 
give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but divisions and 
war ! For henceforth the five inmates of one house shall be 
divided, three against two, and two against three, — the father 
against his son, and the son against his father ; the mother 
against her daughter, and the daughter against her mother ; 
the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daugh- 
ter-in-law against her mother-in-law. So shall the members 
of the same household become one another's foes ! " 2 

We shall presently hear Jesus speak of this baptism again. 
He means that he will be plunged into the depths of suffering ; 

i Matthew x. 34-36, v. 25, 26, xii. 43-45; Mark x. 32-52 ; Luke xviii. 31-43. 
e Compare Michah vii. 6. 



348 ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 

that the waters of affliction will not only rise to Ms lips, but 
flow over his head. It is a striking metaphor, like that of the 
cup of suffering filled to the brim. But here let us consider 
some of the solemn warnings and denunciations which he 
addressed to the b3'standers or the people at large. We 
could sometimes fancy that we were listening to John instead 
of Jesus. 

He was greeted on a certain da} T with the mournful tidings 
that Pilate had laid hold of certain Galilseans who had come 
to offer their sacrifices at Jerusalem, and had slain them in 
the forecourt of the temple. We know nothing as to the ex- 
act date of this event or the circumstances which occasioned 
the murder. Possibly there was some slight tumult to which 
the restless, excitable temperament of the countrymen of Je- 
sus might easily give rise. The news doubtless made a very 
different impression upon different hearers. While one would 
clench his fist and turn his e3 T es to heaven, wondering whether 
the measure of Israel's oppression by these cursed heathen 
did not }'et overflow, and whether the hour of redemption had 
not yet struck ; others of a more cautious and submissive 
temperament would shake their heads, and declare that the 
victims had fallen before a righteous judgment of the Lord. 
But Jesus, while emphatically repudiating this Jewish doctrine 
of divine "judgments," warned his hearers no less earnestly 
against being excited to revenge by the murderous event, and 
urged them rather to regard it as a presage of the fate that 
hung over their own heads also. He took the same opportu- 
nity to remind them of an accident that had happened a short 
time before in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, opposite the 
south-west corner of the cit} r wall, 1 from which false conclu- 
sions had likewise been drawn. "Do you think," he said 
severe^, " that the death of these Galilseans shows that they 
were special sinners among their fellow-countrymen ? I tell 
you no ! but unless you repent you shall all perish likewise ! 
Or do you think that the eighteen men who were crushed in 
the ruins when the tower of Siloam fell were specially guilty 
among all the citizens of Jerusalem, in God's sight? I tell 
you no ! but unless you repent you will all perish likewise. 

To enforce the necessity of a speedy repentance, Jesus 
used an illustration borrowed from the administration of 
earthly justice. It was best, he said, even at the very last 
moment, to come to some friendly agreement with a creditor. 
What he meant was that it was wise for a man to be reconciled 

1 See Map IV. 



ON THE WAT TO JERUSALEM. 34^ 

with God in time, before he was cast into the fire of Gehenna. 
These are his words : " Why do 3*011 not consider what to do? 
Tf 3*011 are going with 3*0111* creditor to the court of law, do 
your best, even on the very road, to appease him. Otherwise 
he will take you before the judgment seat, and the judge will 
hand 3*011 over to the gaoler, and the gaoler will throw 3*011 
into prison. I tell 3*011, you will never come out again till 3*011 
have .paid the last farthing of your debt ! " 

Sometimes his warnings were addressed to all Israel ; and 
still in the form of parables: "There was a certain fig-tree 
growing in a vineyard, and the master kept coming to see if 
there was any fruit on it, but could never find any. Then he 
said to the vine-dresser : ' See, I have come to look for fruit 
upon this fig-tree for three years, and have never found an3 r . 
Cut it down, for it impoverishes the ground for nothing!' 
But the man replied : ' Master, let it alone one year more, 
and I will try it once again. I will dig up the earth round 
its roots and manure it well ; and then if it bears fruit, all the 
better, and if not 3'ou can cut it down next 3*ear.' " 

We can see that it is not so much God's long-suffering as 
the certaint3* of the approaching judgment that Jesus seeks to 
enforce. One more attempt to teach his people their true 
calling, and then . . . ! But the conversion must be gen- 
uine, lasting, fruitful, not a mere fitful reformation followed 
by a far more hopeless relapse. Jesus had had experience of 
such reformations, and compared his incorrigible contempora- 
ries to a man possessed by a devil, who had been relieved for 
a little while, but only to become a victim to his old disease 
in a 3*et more terrible degree. " When the unclean spirit is 
gone out of a man, he wanders about in deserts seeking a 
resting-place and finding none. Then he says : * I will go 
back to my old house, out of which I came.' So he comes 
and finds it uninhabited, swept clean and beautified. Then 
he goes and finds seven other spirits, yet more wicked tha.i 
himself, and takes them with him, and they go into the house 
and sta3* there. The last state of this man is worse than the 
first ; and even so shall this wicked race go on from bad to 
worse ! " 

We should certainly be wrong in supposing that Jesus never 
had brighter and more cheerful hours or da3*s during this 
journe3*. On the contraiy, we have alread3* mentioned tokens 
of affection and reverence which he met with and rejoiced in 
on his wa3*. But it is 011I3' natural that as he drew near to 



350 ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 

the goal of his journo3 T , the fearful thought of a fatal issue to 
all his efforts should again have risen in his mind with fresh 
distinctness. He had now crossed the river, left the valley 
of the Jordan behind him, and set his foot upon the territory 
of Judah, where the road led up a gentle ascent, through a 
densely populated district, and through natural sceneiy widely 
different from that which he had just left. And here, we are 
expressly told, Jesus took the Twelve aside again to speak to 
them of what was weighing on his mind. " We are going up 
to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man," — but in this case we must 
not attempt the task upon which we ventured in a previous 
instance, 1 of restoring the original form of his discourse, for 
the words of this third prediction of suffering have been ad- 
justed to the event down to the minutest details by all the 
three Gospels. Jesus is made to foretell that he will be given 
up to the Sanhedrim, condemned to death by that assembly, 
and put into the hands of the heathen authorities to be 
mocked, scourged, and crucified. Mark and Luke do not 
even omit to say that he would be spit upon, while the latter 
puts into the mouth of Jesus the words, " All that was written 
by the prophets shall be accomplished upon the Son of Man." 
In Mark, Jesus and his disciples completely change characters, 
for the latter hang back in dismay or follow timidly, while the 
Master goes on undisturbed and calm. We therefore leave 
all this as we find it, and can only be sure that on this occa- 
sion also Jesus concluded the discourse by an assurance that 
even if he were defeated for a time, } T et " after three days" 
he would rise victorious. 

His disciples understood the certainty of his final triumph 
better than the probability of his temporaiy defeat. Of 
course they were not so incapable of understanding his 
teaching, or s}'mpathizing with his anxiety, or so absolutely 
blind to the true position of affairs, as not to apprehend the 
possibility of a hard and bitter struggle, involving them in 
the greatest difficulties and dangers, before the opposition 
should be overcome and the kingdom of God attained. But 
they were prepared, in such a case, to stand faithfully and 
bravely at their Master's side as he faced the enemy, and to 
protect him from violence, sword in hand, against any odds. 
But as for the thought that their Master himself might have 
to purchase the victory by his own death, — that they could 
not by any possibility accept ; that was still in conflict with all 
their ideas and all their faith ; that was still an absurdity to 
1 See pp. 326 ff. 



ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 351 

thern. And so, when they saw that the crisis drew near, vis- 
ions of grandeur and honor floated before their minds. In- 
deed two of them (the brothers James and John) thought that 
it was a good opportunity for securing their own future. They 
did not think it would be unfair or ungenerous towards the 
rest if the} T tried to gain the highest rank for themselves ; for 
they, together with Simon, had been the first summoned and 
the most trusted of all the disciples. And if any thing was 
to be done it was high time now to do it. But since they 
could hardly venture upon putting their plan into execution 
themselves they persuaded their mother to help them, and she 
would do any thing if the interests of her children seemed to 
require it. So, once on a time, before they had reached Jeri- 
cho, Zebedee's wife came with her two sons to Jesus, threw 
herself upon the ground before him, and begged a boon of 
him. " What is it?" he asked her gently. " Promise me," 
she cried humbly but fervently, ' ' that these two sons of 
mine shall sit in }'Our kingdom, the one on your right hand 
and the other on your left." 

Here again we encounter the fixed belief of the disciples 
that, since their Master was going to the city of God, ere long, 
though the severest sufferings and the most stubborn conflict 
might intervene, he would ascend the throne of the Messiah. 
When this took place, James and John hoped to gain the 
highest places of honor after Jesus himself. What a painful 
shock this request must have been to Jesus ! Was it in vain 
that he had warned his disciples so expressly yet again against 
self-exaltation and emulation? Would the}- remain to the end 
the victims of mere worldly ambition ? What could he expect 
from such disciples? Would they be true to him and to the 
good cause when heav} T sacrifices were required ? He did not 
utter a word of reproof to the mother, for he could easily for- 
give even such a request as hers if dictated by a mother's 
love ; but turning to the two disciples he said, with more than 
usual sternness, u You know not what you ask! Have you 
courage and strength to drink the cup which I must drain, 
and to submit to the baptism with which I must be baptized ?" 
But the}' did not notice the tone of rebuke, and only heard the 
conditions. There was no need to doubt their readiness, how- 
ever hard the proof might be. " We have," they answered, 
so eagerly that Jesus was encouraged by their zeal and felt 
that he was sure of them again. He answered more gently 
than before, "You shall empty the cup which I drink, and 
6hall undergo the baptism with which I am baptized ; but to 



3t>2 ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 

sit on my right hand and on nry left is not mine to give. It 
is for them for whom God reserves it." 

Did Jesus himself believe that one would rank above 
another in the kingdom of God? Was he so inconsistent 
with himself? Certainly not. He would have no outward, 
extraneous, arbitrary elevation of individuals, no distinctions 
such as the world recognizes ; but he knew very well that God 
has divided the gifts of the spirit diversely, and that one has 
increased his talents more and another less. Not only did he 
say, " The more humble, the more exalted; the more self- 
denying, the more to be honored ! " but he also saw that the 
Father had given one clearer light and more savory salt of the 
spirit than another. Perhaps at this very time the possibil- 
ity rose before his mind, which was afterwards realized by 
Stephen and Paul, that he might yet find disciples less preju- 
diced and intractable than the Twelve, or even the chosen 
three, — disciples who would penetrate further into his mean- 
ing, would exert a more powerful influence than they, and 
would become the first after himself in the kingdom of 
God! 

However this may be, he was soon compelled to intercede 
among the disciples themselves ; for when the other ten heard 
how James and John had tried to steal a march upon them, 
they were exceedingly angiy, for they were all of them equally 
worldly and ambitious. But Jesus, in order to restore a good 
understanding, called them all to him, and without at all ex- 
cusing the conduct of the two brothers, gently reproved the 
rest : " You know how things go among the heathen, — how 
princes govern the peoples and great men control the masses ? 
But it must not be so with you ! If any one of you would be 
great, let him serve the rest ; and whichever of you would be 
first, let him be the servant of all. 1 Even so the Son of Man 
has come not to be served, but to serve all others [and to give 
his life as a ransom for many]." 

That was and is and will ever be the motto of the king- 
dom of God. How many of its professed servants under- 
stand and apply it as Jesus did himself, and required others 
to do? 

The caravan passed by the stately groves to which Jericho 
owes its name of the ' ' City of Palms ; " by the precious bal- 
sam-bushes that, according to the ancient authorities, grew 
nowhere else but here ; by the rose and flower-gardens, which 

1 Compare Luke xxii. 25-27. 



ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 353 

filled the air with their perfume, and which strangers vied 
with the people of the place in praising. At last they came 
to the beautiful, flourishing, active city of Jericho itself, where 
they intended to stay and find quarters for the night, to re- 
cover from the fatigues of the journey and prepare themselves 
for the last and hardest part of their pilgrimage, — the barren 
reach from Jericho to Jerusalem. Their fame had preceded 
them- to Jericho, and a great crowd came out to meet the 
celebrated Rabbi or Prophet of Nazareth, who had succeeded 
John in preaching the approach of the kingdom of God. Cu- 
riosity and friendly interest on the one hand, and hatred of 
the seducer of the people on the other, as well as the deeper 
longing for the salvation of the Lord, brought out the citizens 
of Jericho in crowds ; and as the company entered the city 
and passed slowly through it, the varying sentiments of the 
bystanders were from time to time distinctly enough pro- 
claimed. 

Now among the crowd a man, whose wealth was shown by 
his rich apparel, might have been observed pressing forward 
to get a sight of Jesus as he drew near the far end of the 
town where this man lived. He was the chief of the great 
tax-office at Jericho, which was a very important one, and his 
name was Zacchreus. We can well believe, therefore, that 
not a creature stirred a step to make way for him ! This 
grieved him be}'ond measure, for he was a short man and 
could not see over the shoulders and heads of the crowd ; but 
he was determined not to be thwarted, so he extricated him- 
self from the crush and ran forward till he came to a place 
where a S3*camore-tree grew beside the way. The caravan 
would pass bj' it ; so, regardless of his own dignity and the 
jeering of the lookers-on, he clambered up among the spread- 
ing branches of this tree, whence he could narrowly watch the 
man of whom he had heard so much that was good, and could 
observe him at his ease. Little did he think what was in store 
for him ! 

The crowd soon reached the spot, and man} 7 eyes were invol- 
untarily raised to the sycamore-tree. Jesus himself looked up, 
stood still, and cried to the publican, " Zacchseus, come down 
quickly ! for I would gladly be your guest to-day." Zacchseus 
could hardl}^ believe his ears. In a moment he was on the 
ground again, and, after doing obeisance to his guest, he con- 
ducted him to his house, while his heart overflowed with joy. 
But we can easily see what a bad impression this would make 
on the public. "Just look! He actually prefers to be the 



354 ON THE WAT TO JERUSALEM. 

guest of such a sinner rather than of any of the respectable 
and virtuous people who would have been glad to entertain 
him ! " Such comments were freely uttered ; so freely, indeed, 
that as Zacchseus and Jesus were about to enter the house 
they could not help hearing them. The former perhaps feared 
that the unexpected honor, the great privilege, of receiving 
the prophet might even } T et be snatched away from him, and 
that Jesus might choose another host ; but at any rate he 
felt that he ought to show not only his gratitude, but also his 
perfect readiness to make full amends for his past life ; so he 
took a brave resolve, and, standing before Jesus with a certain 
solemnity of manner, he uttered this spontaneous vow before 
the prophet crossed his threshold : " The half of my posses- 
sions, Lord, I herebj' give to the poor ; and if I have exacted 
any undue payments, I will restore them fourfold." x Jesus 
was pleased by the man's passionate longing for salvation, 
and at once to set him at peace, to restore him to honor be- 
fore the people, and to defend his own conduct, said : " To- 
day is salvation come into this house, since he too is a son 
of Abraham ; for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save 
that which was lost." 

Probably the stay at Jericho was not a long one, but 
neither was it without results. The Pharisees may have 
been prevented from visiting Jesus by his staying in a sin- 
ner's house ; but others would no doubt be only too glad of 
any opportunity of seeing and hearing him. And whoever 
came he doubtless taught them that the kingdom of God was 
at hand, and urged them with all his power to repent. Nor 
can we help imagining that his disciples scattered up and 
down among the people of Jericho must, in spite of them- 
selves, have given utterance to their great expectations and 
set many a heart a-glow. We must also remember that the 
scene of John's appearance and activity was not far from 
Jericho, so that the impression he had made would be more 
lasting here than elsewhere, and the sound of his voice must 
still have been echoing in many a bosom. We can therefore 
well believe the statement that when the caravan left Jericho 
a great number of the citizens went with it. Most of these 
would only escort Jesus a little way, but some would attach 
themselves to him more permanently. In connection with 
this circumstance the following story of a miraculous cure is 
given : — 

Just outside the city a certain blind man, Bartimseus, sat 

1 Compare Exodus xxii. 1, 4, 7 ; Numbers v. 6, 7; and p. 135. 



ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 355 

by the road-side begging. Hearing the approach of a num- 
ber of people in no small commotion he asked what it was all 
about, and was told that Jesus of Nazareth was coming past. 
Then a ray of hope shot through his night of misery, and he 
cried at the top of his voice, "Jesus, son of David, take pity 
on me ! " In vain did the foremost of the crowd command 
him to be silent and rebuke him for disturbing the Master. 
He only cried all the more earnestly, " Son of David, have 
pity!" Jesus heard hisa, stood still, and said to the people 
round about him, " Let him come to me ! " Then they said 
to the blind man, "Be of good cheer ! he is calling 3 T ou." In 
a moment Bartimseus had thrown off his cloak and stood up 
to be led to Jesus. " What would you have from me?" said 
the Master kindly. " Rabboni ! [my Master] I would receive 
my sight again," answered the other in a suppliant voice. 
With deep compassion Jesus laid his hand upon his eyes and 
said, "Receive your sight! your faith has saved you." On 
the spot the blind man gained his sight again, and he followed 
his benefactor, rendering fervent thanks to God. 

Mark (and he alone) gives the blind man's name as Barti- 
mseus, having already said that he was " the son of Timseutf," 
which is the same thing ; but we must not be misled by the 
fact of the name being given (a circumstance to wilich there 
is no parallel in other stories of healing) into supposing that 
any actual individual was meant ; for in all probability this 
name is symbolical, and means "son of the blind." It is 
of small importance that Matthew speaks of two blind men 
on this as on a previous occasion, 1 or that Luke makes the 
event occur as Jesus enters Jericho instead of as he leaves it. 
He does so in order to provide a more suitable introduction 
to the meeting with Zacchseus which he alone relates. It is 
possible that this symbolic narrative designedly places us at 
the point when Jesus turns directly towards Jerusalem, as an 
indication that he was ready to open the eyes of his people, 
■ — the blind sons of blind fathers. 2 But originally it was 
most likely a picture of Jesus as the sinners' friend. We 
need not stay to ask whether an} T special event which really 
took place at Jericho lies at the bottom of the story, nor 
whether the cure of the blind man (or men) in the first two 
Gospels corresponds properly to the rescue of Zacchseus in 
the third, while Luke has preserved both the historical and 
the symbolical form of the event side by side. 8 Again, cer- 

i See p. 208. 2 Compare Matthew xv. 14, xxiii. 16, 17, 19, 24, 26; John ix. 
8 See p. 202. 



356 ON THE WAY TO JERUSALEM. 

tain difficulties have been urged against the visit to the chief 
publican itself; for instance, that Luke alone records it, 
that Jesus could not have known the man's name, and that 
Zacchseus has the symbolical meaning of "clean." 1 But 
these objections do not appear to us conclusive ; and in any 
case we need not discuss them, for both the story of Zac- 
chseus and that of the blind man give a true picture, each in 
in its way, of the character of the work of Jesus. But the 
point that strikes us most, and upon which we would lay the 
fullest stress, is the position which these stories occup}\ 
Who does not feel the significance of the fact that here, in 
Judaea itself, at the very gates as it were of the City of the 
Temple, here as he enters upon the last stage of his career, 
— a stage in many respects so dark and gloomy, — Jesus 
meets us } T et again as the redeemer of the lost ones, loving 
and gentle, spontaneous and delicate in his advances, pitiful, 
self-deling, and lovable as ever ! 

Under every change that we have observed, even under 
this last great revolution in his prospects, his feelings, and 
the tone of his preaching, he remains the same in his divine 
pity for every one who has gone astray. His heart was as 
warm as ever ; his faith in human nature and his reverence 
for man were not shaken for a moment by his melancholy 
experience. The preacher of God's judgment drawing near 
to the capital of his country is still, even there, even to the 
end, the friend of sinners, the inspired advocate of the new 
and immortal principle of man's worth and God's love. It 
wais in this spirit of redeeming love, it was to seek and to 
save, that he plunged into the midst of 'dangers that none 
foresaw more clearly than himself. 

1 Compare Luke xi. 41 with xix. 8. 



JESUS APPEARS AT JERUSALEM 3fi7 



Chapter XXIX. 

JESUS APPEARS AT JERUSALEM. 

Matthew XXI. 1-16. 1 

HARDLY had the traveller to the City of the Temple left 
Jericho a league behind, when he found he had passed 
from one of the loveliest spots upon earth into an ill-favored 
and dismal waste. The whole distance was six leagues, and 
in spite of undulations the journey was on the whole an 
ascent, for Jerusalem was three thousand feet above the 
Jordan valley. It was these barren rocks, these narrow 
passes, these rock-bound defiles, thinly covered with brush- 
wood, that formed the background upon which the picture 
of the " Good Samaritan," already known to us, was painted. 
But as bands of pilgrims passed along the road, drawing 
nearer with every step to the goal of their journey, for which 
they had longed with such eager expectation, we may be sure 
that the}^ seldom or never allowed themselves to be appalled, 
or even depressed, by the sceneiy through which they passed ; 
and least of all would it disturb the high-wrought enthusiasm 
and joyous expectations of the caravan we are now accompa- 
nying in fancy. How many a heart leaped up in transport ; 
how many a bosom panted with impatience ; how many a 
straining e} T e saw nothing of precipitous cliffs or barren 
gorges, but was filled b} r the dazzling vision of a splendid 
coronation and the glorious dominion it would inaugurate ! 
Can we not picture the companions of Jesus on this last day 
of the journey ? — some of them quiet, as if plunged in tl ought ; 
some of them engaged in animated conversation ; yet others 
with joyous cries from sacred songs upon their lips ; but 
almost all in growing tension of excitement. 

And Jesus himself ? It is extremely difficult to pierce the 
veil of his thoughts. One thing, however, is certain : that 
Luke is mistaken in making him bewail the impenitence of 
the city, and foretell its future destruction by the Romans in 
minute delail 2 as soon as he approaches and beholds it ; for 
the city's impenitence had not as yet appeared, and Luke is 

i Mark xi. 1-11, 15-18 ; Luke xix. 28-40, 45-48. 
2 Luke xix. 41-44. 



3)8 JESUS APPEARS AT JERUSALEM. 

evidently confounding the feelings which inspired Jesus a 
week or two later, after the failure of his efforts, with those 
of his first approach to the city. We shall be nearer the 
truth in thinking of Jesus as suspended between hope and 
fear, alternately contemplating the possibilhy of success and 
failure during these last hours ; but the fact that he did 
nothing to check the enthusiasm of his followers, and pres- 
ently entered upon the contest in such a loft} T mood himself, 
appears to indicate that for the time hope, if not supreme, was 
at least predominant in his mind, — which is indeed no more 
than we should expect. Here again Luke has confounded 
the expectation with the result ; for he has put into the 
mouth of Jesus, a few hours before, a parable expressly 
designed to correct the impression that, since he had now 
almost reached Jerusalem, the kingdom of God would imme- 
diately come. 1 In spite of its inappositeness, however, we 
will give this parable here. It is that of the mime, or pounds. 
A mina represents about 3£ 6s. ; and to understand the story 
we must further note that in those times there was nothing 
strange in the idea of a man's going to Rome to receive at the 
Emperor's hands the appointment to the vacant throne of 
some tributary state. Thirty years before Archelaus had done 
this veiy thing, and had been appointed ruler of Judaea and 
the two neighboring districts in spite of the opposition of 
the Jews, who had sent ambassadors to implore Augustus to 
spare them the imposition of a Herod. There is an obvious 
reference to all this in the parable, which runs as follows : 2 

A certain man of noble birth set out for a distant land, to 
be invested with the regal dignity and then return. But first 
he summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them each a mina 
to trade with during his absence. It was only a trifle ; but 
his object was simply to make a trial of their fidelity, zeal, 
and ability, since he would soon be wanting faithful servants 
as governors. Now, when he had set out, his fellow-citizens 
sent an embassy after him to inform his suzerain that they 
did not want him as their prince, for they hated him ; but 
their protest was in vain. So when the nobleman returned 
as king, he summoned the ten slaves to see what they had 
accomplished. The first had increased his stock by ten 
minae, the second by five, and so on ; for which the} T were all 
rewarded by the warm approval of their master, and by ap- 
pointments to governorships of ten, five, or such other num 
ber of cities as corresponded with their deserts. Then he 

i Luke xix. 11. 2 Luke xix. 12-37. 



JESUS APPEARS AT JERUSALEM. 359 

ordered the enemies who had tried to prevent his becoming 
king to be brought into his presence and cut down before his 
e}'es. 1 

The meaning evidently is that Jesus was not going to 
ascend the Messianic throne in Jerusalem at once, but must 
first go up to heaven, there to receive the kingship from God, 
— for such was the faith of the apostolic age,' 2 — and that on 
his return he would reward his faithful servants and inflict a 
fearful punishment upon the rebellious Jews. The story was 
certainly never told by Jesus. It is an imitation (and not a 
very successful one) of the parable of the talents ; 3 and this 
accounts for the introduction of an episode which so disturbs 
the progress of the narrative that we designedly omitted it. 
It is this : One of the slaves came with his mina and said that 
he had wrapped it in a cloth and hidden it, because he knew 
his master was a hard and unjust man. His master there- 
fore punished him, and rebuked him for not having put his 
mone} T in the bank ; after which he astonished all present by 
ordering the mina to be given to the most enterprising of the 
other servants, who had gained ten extra minse already. Now 
all this was well enough in the parable of the talents, for 
there the master gave his servants charge of all his posses- 
sions, and even the least favored of them had to manage a 
considerable sum ; but here the smallness of the amount in 
question makes the whole proceeding inappropriate, and it 
would simply be ridiculous to show additional respect for the 
governor of ten cities b} r a present of three guineas ! 

But let us return to Jesus and his fellow-travellers. We 
have alread}- said that the Master made no attempt to check 
the enthusiasm of his friends ; and when they had exchanged 
the wilderness of Jericho for a less-forbidding district ; when 
their eyes rested on the Mount of Olives, behind which they 
knew the Holy City lay ; when they had passed through 
Bethairy, on the eastern slope, half hidden among its noble 
trees and undulating verdure, — their excitement rose at last 
to its culminating point. Jesus had sent for an ass, on which 
to ride into the cit} T ; and, in lieu of a saddle, some of his 
disciples had folded their cloaks and laid them on the ass's 
back for him to sit on. Then they ascended the ridge between 
the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Offence ; and there the 
City of God, so loved, so praised in the songs of Israel, lay 
stretched before them in all its gloiy ! What colossal walls 

1 See pp. 304. 305. 2 Compare Acts ii. 36, iii. 20, 21, et seq. 

* See pp. 165, 166. 



'60 JESUS APPEARS AT JERUSALEM. 

and mighty towers rising from the precipitous rock ! "What 
luxurious palaces and entrancing pleasure-grounds ! But 
above and before all else the eye was dazzled and the heart 
enthralled by the Temple of the Lord : an imposing and 
marvellous erection even to the heathen, but to the Israelite 
the very consummation of holiness and glory upon earth, — 
his greatest pride and his deepest J03 T . There was the temple 
area, with its noble colonnades ; and on the highest terrace 
there stood the sanctuary itself, with its glittering parapets 
of snow-white marble, tipped with the tapering golden spikes 
and plated on all sides with sheets of gold, shining beneath 
the sunbeams, now like a mountain of snow, now like a sea 
of fire. How could such a sight fail to call forth a general 
outburst of enthusiasm ? The sacred spot was reached where 
the kingdom of God would be established, and on the very 
instant honor and glory must be rendered to him who brought 
that kingdom ! Most of the company threw off their upper 
garments and laid them in the way for the ass to step upon, 
while others strewed the path with leaves and branches from 
the neighboring fields ; and, as they waved the palm-branches 
in their hands, those who went before and those who followed 
him sang in alternation the song of praise, — ■ 

Hosanna ! 
Bless him that comes in the name of the Lord! 
Bless the approaching kingdom of David our father! 

Hosanna in the highest! 

With such shouts of triumph they turned northwards along 
the slopes of the Mount of Olives, past Bethphage that was 
reckoned part of the sacred ground of the City of the Tem- 
ple, by the Garden of Gethsemane, then down across the 
bridge over the Kidron? and up the hill again, through the 
Sheep-gate into Jerusalem ! It was no new thing at Jerusa- 
lem to see caravans of pilgrims drawing near with exuberant 
signs of delight ; but such an entry as this must have caused 
no little commotion. " Who is it? " the people asked in cu- 
riosity and amazement as the procession, chiefly composed 
of G-alilseans, passed them b} T , and the central figure drew all 
e} T es upon him. And the crowd of triumphant Galilaeans 
answered, "It is the mighty prophet Jesus, from Nazareth 
in Galilee ! " 

Before accompanying Jesus and his disciples through the 
streets of the city to the temple, we must make a few remarks 
in justification of the account we have given of their entry ; 



JESUS APPEARS AT JERUSALEM. 361 

for it departs in several particulars from the narratives of the 
Gospels, which do not always agree with each other. 

According to Luke the disciples of Jesus cry, " Blessed be 
the king who comes in the name of the Lord ! Peace be in 
heaven, and glory in the highest ! " 1 upon which certain Phar- 
isees who are present request the Master to forbid them ; but 
he replies, " I tell } t ou that if the} T held their peace the very 
stones would cry out ! " One does not quite see what had 
brought the Pharisees thus early into the presence of Jesus, 
and his short and stern reply strikes us as an implied rebuke, 
anvil a kind of echo of the wail over Jerusalem's impenitence 
already mentioned. At an} r rate, this question and answer 
can hardly have been uttered upon this occasion. 

A second point is of more importance. All the Gospels 
make Jesus, upon reaching the Mount of Olives, despatch 
two of his friends to the village that lies before them (pre- 
sumably Bethphage) to fetch him an ass's colt which, he says, 
they will find at the entrance of the village, tied up. If any 
one asks them what they are doing, they are to answer, l ' The 
lord requires it," and they will be no further molested. Now, 
this story implies either a previous arrangement with the 
owner of the colt, or divine foreknowledge on the part of 
Jesus ; and when we consider all the circumstances, and re- 
member that Jesus was a stranger in the village, the former 
supposition becomes almost as unsatisfactory as the latter. 
Moreover, Mark and Luke not only add that the D3 r standers 
or the owners of the colt did actually challenge the arbitrary 
proceedings of the disciples, but also say that, according to 
Jesus himself, no one had ever ridden on the beast before. 
The idea is, of course, that it would not otherwise have been 
holy enough for him ; 2 but any one can see how ill-suited an 
unbroken colt would be for carrying Jesus in the midst of so 
excited a procession. 

But Matthew's account is the most extraordinary of all ; 
for he makes Jesus send for two beasts, an ass and a colt, 
and ride upon them both ! This is because he sees in the 
event the literal fulfilment of a prophecy in Zechariah, 8 in 
which, by a curious blunder, he supposes that two animals 
are mentioned. He renders it: "Say to the daughter of 
Zion, ' Behold ! thy king is coming to thee, gentle, riding 

1 Compare Luke ii. 14. 

2 Compare Numbers xix. 2; Deuteronomy xxi. 3; 1 Samuel vi. 7; and Luke 
xxiii. 53 : John xix. 41. 

3 Zechariah ix. 9. See vol. ii. p. 255; compare Isaiah lxii. 11. 
vol. ill. 1G 



362 JESUS APPEARS AT JERUSALEM. 

upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of a beast of burden." 
We may note in passing that one of the earliest ecclesiastical 
Fathers, running off upon the sound, actually quotes a verse 
from Jacob's blessing to prove that the ass was bound to a 
vine-tree ; 1 and after all this is only canying out the practice, 
habitual to the Jewish-Christian Evangelist himself, of using 
the Scriptures of the Old Testament as materials for the life 
of Jesus. 2 We need therefore paj~ no further attention to 
the details given in Matthew ; but, on the other hand, the co- 
incidence between this prophecy of the Messiah as the Prince 
of Peace and the mode in which Jesus entered the city 
is sufficiently remarkable to suggest the question whether 
he himself had the words of Zechariah in his mind. Did he 
enter the city upon an ass expressly to show that, though he 
claimed to be the Messiah, it was not as an earthly potentate 
who would more fitly ride a war-horse, but rather as a peace- 
bearer? This is not impossible, but neither does it seem 
very probable ; for riding on an ass was so very common a 
mode of travelling that Jesus can hardly have calculated 
on those who saw him thinking of the prophecy in question 
and divining his meaning. Nor is it even certain that his 
disciples expressly greeted him as the Messiah in person upon 
this occasion ; for though Matthew makes them cry, ' ' Ho- 
sanna to the son of David ! " it is doubtful whether Jesus was 
ever realty addressed by this title during his lifetime ; 3 and 
the Evangelist himself appears to contradict his own account 
immediately afterwards, when be makes the exultant disciples 
answer the question of the people of Jerusalem b} T saying — ■ 
not "This is the Messiah ! " but — " This is the prophet from 
Nazareth ! " 

In a word, the whole thing seems to have happened quite 
simply. The ass — a much finer and more swift- footed ani- 
mal and far more highly esteemed in the East than with our- 
selves — was the animal ordinarily ridden in Palestine, as the 
horse is here ; and, though we cannot tell how Jesus came to 
have the opportunity or the wish to ride into Jerusalem, there 
is nothing in the least extraordinaiy in either the one or the 
other. Perhaps he thought this mode of entiy more suitable 
to the dignity of the occasion than walking. In the same 
spirit he refrained from checking his disciples' cries of tri- 
umph. Nothing could be more natural than for the latter to 
sing a few lines of the hundred and eighteenth psalm in his 
honor, for it was often sung at the Feast of Tabernacles and 
i Genesis xlix. 11. a See p. 37. 8 See p. 38. 



JESUS APPEARS AT JERUSALEM. 363 

oilier festivals. " Hosanna," in verse 25 (property hoshianna, 
i.e. " Help, then ! " or " Save us ! "), was a form of invoking 
a blessing or expressing jo}', and the following verse was 
originally a greeting offered by the priests to the visitors of 
the temple. But, after all, even if Jesus was not expressly 
called the Messiah, it was nevertheless a Messianic entry into 
Jerusalem ; for at any rate he was conducted into the City of 
the Temple, amidst the acclamations of his followers, as the 
prophet who would bring the Messianic kingdom. The Tweh e, 
of course, would look upon him in that case as the Anointed 
of the Lord himself, whereas the rest may have formed the 
same conception in some cases and divergent ones in others. 1 
It is not without reason, therefore, that the Christian Church 
attaches great importance to this event, and consecrates the 
Sunday before Easter to its memory. The day is fixed in 
accordance with the indications of the fourth Gospel, and is 
called Palm Sunday after the commemorative palm branches 
with which the churches are decorated. Finally, when Mat- 
thew says that ''the whole city was moved," we must look 
upon his words as a natural exaggeration, and need not be 
surprised to find that this triumphal entry does not seem to 
have been so much as mentioned at the trial of Jesus ; for, 
though it made a deep impression upon his followers at the 
time, the great majority of the people of Jerusalem would 
not pa}- the least attention to it. 

So Jesus, of Nazareth in Galilee, had entered Jerusalem 
at the head of his followers, and they had greeted him as the 
prophet who came to inaugurate the kingdom of God. They 
themselves, of course, made straight for the temple ; but the 
question was whether their enthusiasm would infect the peo- 
ple of God's city, and force them to join their procession and 
take up their cries of joy, while Jesus advanced towards Is- 
rael's sanctuary and finally entered its gates? It can hardly 
surprise us that nothing of the kind took place. The people 
of Jerusalem looked on in surprise, or ran together here and 
there, in half-contemptuous curiosity to witness these demon- 
strations of Galilsean excitement, but that was all. No doubt 
this was a great disappointment to the friends of Jesus, if not 
to himself ; but the future might make up for the present, they 
thought. 

To the temple, then ! The} 7 had only a few streets to pass 
through before reaching one of the gates that opened into tho 
1 Compare pp. 312, 313, and Acts iii. 22 ff. 



361: JESUS APPEARS AT JERUSALEM. 

consecrated area. Here Jesus dismounted. What were Jus 
thoughts as he stood there ? His foot was now to rest upon 
the spot which, as his contemporaries thought, had been for 
thousands of } 7 ears the sole earthly abode of the Eternal, the 
Lord of heaven ! It was not, indeed, for the first time. He 
had doubtless visited the temple more than once in early life. 
The impression he received on the first occasion must have 
been overwhelming. National reminiscences and the force 
of tradition added impressiveness to the grand proportions 
and the magnificent architecture and adornments of the tem- 
ple ; and when the devout young Galilsean entered the court 
of the heathen, and cast his e}'e over the extended area, sur- 
rounded b3 T double and triple rows of columns, each four-and- 
thirty feet in height, each hewed from a single block of the 
whitest marble, and wainscoted with cedar ; when he gazed 
on the tessellated pavement that covered the whole open space, 
and on the terrace in the centre, that none but the sons of the 
chosen people might ascend ; when he looked yet further and 
beheld the second terrace, upon which stood the court of the 
priests and the sanctuary itself; when he saw what inestimable 
treasures had been lavished upon every thing, how exquisitely 
each detail had been executed, and with what marvellous art 
the whole had been blended together, — must not his senses 
have almost reeled ? But his subsequent visits would produce 
an ever-growing sense of want and dissatisfaction, in propor- 
tion as his own religious life developed ; and his aversion to 
the formality which reigned uncontrolled in the temple must 
have constantly risen. It was perhaps a long time now since 
he had been there ; and, as he raised his foot once more over 
the consecrated threshold, he felt afresh that, in opening the 
treasure-house of his spirit to the people and bringing them 
true salvation, he must in appearance act the part of a de- 
sti*03 T er, and in the name of Moses and the prophets pronounce 
the sentence of condemnation upon this dead religion. He 
could not look upon the temple with the indifferent eye of a 
stranger. He, if any one, felt the inseparable tie of a com- 
mon faith with the pious generations who had worshipped 
there. His heart overflowed with mingled and conflicting 
emotions. In this primeval seat of Israel's worship he must 
appear as the messenger of the Lord, — must demand an ab- 
solute renovation ; must announce the approaching judgment ; 
must preach the gospel of the kingdom. 

In sacred transport he entered the temple, with gait erect 
and beaming eye, followed by his disciples ! 



JESUS APPEARS AT JERUSALEM. 365 

What a scene it was that met him ! Not only the press of 
coming and going pilgrims, — here approaching with their 
beasts for sacrifice, here pushing their way one against an- 
other, and here raising their songs of praise, all which he 
could have borne, — but the clatter and chaffer of a fair! 
The jostling and shouting of the market-place had drowned 
the voice of devotion ! For here in the outer court stood the 
booths of the cattle-dealers, of the traders in wine, oil, corn, 
incense, salt, and other requisites for sacrifice, and of the 
monej'-brokers who changed the coins of the various districts 
from which the faithful had streamed to the temple, for the 
didrachma of the temple duty or for Greek and Roman coins. 
It was vain to expect any feeling for the sanctit}- of the place 
in these men. They simply came there to make what they 
could, and too often deliberately reckoned upon cheating the 
pilgrims by demanding extortionate prices for their wares, or 
taking advantage of their ignorance of the exchange value of 
the coinage. And, even when there was no cheating, the clat- 
ter of voices, clinking of mone} T , bleating and lowing of beasts 
filled the court ! Maybe the dealers and mone3~-changers 
looked for more business yet from the arrival of another 
caravan of pilgrims, with the sacred chant upon their lips. 

Now Jesus knew what always went on here. He had been 
distressed by this temple-market before. But when we re- 
member the mood in which he now entered the temple, we 
can well believe that the scene made him boil with indigna- 
tion as it had never done before. The impulse to put an end 
to it rose strong within him. Had not God set him his task 
that moment ? He did not check the impulse, but gave it rein. 
Irresistible in his sacred wrath, he drove the hucksters and 
dealers through the gate, overturned the tables of the mone3 T - 
changers, while their coins rolled along the ground, and threw 
down the seats of the dove-sellers. 

Never yet, we may be sure, had his followers seen him with 
that flashing eye, that arm extended in command, as one of 
the prophets of old ! And to make the resemblance more 
striking yet, to prove that he was consciously treading in the 
footsteps of the prophets and was urged by their spirit, he 
seconded his deeds b} T words taken from two well-known 
prophetic sayings of the ancient times : 1 " It is written, My 
house shall be called a house of prayer, but } T e have made it 
a den of thieves ! " 

This last expression obviously refers to the dishonest prac- 
1 Isaiah lvi. 7 ; Jeremiah vii. 1] 



366 JESUS APPEARS AT JERUSALEM. 

tices to which the love of gain gave rise. But it may well be 
asked how Jesus could possibly cieanse the temple in this way 
single-handed. Why did all these people tamely submit to 
being expelled? How came it that the temple-guard, who 
had to keep order within the sacred precincts, did not inter- 
vene, and put the disturber of the peace under restraint, or at 
least expel him? Now, it is perfectly true that a fortnight 
later, in the week before the Passover, such a proceeding 
would have been simply and utterly impossible ; for at that 
season there was an indescribable crush of visitors, and we 
may gain some idea of the amount of trade that was carried 
on from the fact that the lambs alone were counted by the 
thousand ; but when Jesus expelled the traders, they may 
not have been so numerous as one might at first suppose. 
Then we must remember that the hallowed zeal which carried 
him away so suddenly extorted such submission, at sluj rate 
for the moment, that resistance was impossible ; and besides, 
his commanding personality borrowed at least the appearance 
of material support from his numerous followers ; for, though 
they took no direct part in the work, their presence rendered 
any attempt at violent resistance inadvisable. 

As for the action itself, its purport was not confined to the 
removal of offensive and inharmonious surroundings from the 
temple, and the maintenance of its sanctity, — for it had a 
wider and symbolical significance, and in this respect again 
resembled the actions of the ancient prophets. It was, in the 
fullest sense, an open declaration of war upon the formal 
worship of the times. The priests, who had a very substan- 
tial interest in the temple-market, took an actual pride in the 
press of business in the court ; for the number of trades- 
men and the amount of their wares indicated the number of 
purchasers, and that, in its turn, was the gauge of Jewish 
piety, fidelity, and zeal. This last consideration influenced 
the Pharisees also to the same effect. This was but natural, 
for such abuses were the necessary result of looking for relig- 
ion in a host of ceremonies and externalities ; and in later 
ages the same addiction to formalities produced analogous ex- 
cesses in the Roman and Greek churches, without shocking 
the faithful in the least. This cleansing of the temple in- 
volved by necessary implication the condemnation of the 
whole system of sacrifice, which really required a market to 
support it ; nor was Jesus the first of the men of God to con- 
demn the sacrificial system. It was not against Moses and 
the prophets that Jesus now advanced as a religious reformer, 



JESUS APPEARS AT JERUSALEM. 367 

for he felt that he was vindicating their work and spirit, but 
it was against the conceptions of piet}' current in his own age 
and among his own people. By this act he defined his posi- 
tion as clearly and sharply as possible, and his aggressive at- 
titude was a striking exposition of his views and intentions. 
His action was a visible presentation of the words which it 
appears from the evidence given at his trial he must have ut- 
tered in Jerusalem : " I will destro}' this temple, and in three 
days will raise it again." By "this temple" he meant the 
Jewish religion, which he came to destroy in order that he 
might raise it again renovated and purified. In future when 
he spoke of the kingdom of God every one knew what he 
meant. This one vigorous measure had put both the masses 
and their leaders in a position to choose decisively for or 
against him. 

As for the leaders, whether priests or Scribes, their choice 
never wavered for an instant. Jesus had summoned them to 
arms, and made them his avowed enemies both by his entry 
and bj* his cleansing of the temple. Mark and Luke, how- 
ever, are a little premature in making the Sanhedrim immedi- 
ately form the definite project of taking his life, and only 
dela}' its execution for fear of the masses. The first Gospel 
mentions on this occasion that Jesus healed some blind men 
and cripples who came to him in the temple, which is per- 
haps a reminiscence of an old saying that forbade the blind 
and crippled to enter the sacred place ; x and the same Gospel 
ssljs that the children in the court cried out, "Hosanna to the 
son of David ! " upon which the chief priests and Scribes 
angrily demanded of Jesus whether he heard what the}' said, 
and found little satisfaction in his brief reply: "I hear it ! 
But have you never read, ' From the mouth of babes and 
sucklings hast thou prepared thy praise ' ? " 2 These details 
do not commend themselves to our acceptance, and come in 
strangely after the violent scene that precedes them. Mark, 
in his turn, relates that Jesus would allow no one to carry 
household utensils or furniture, for instance, through the 
temple court, when that was the shortest way from one part 
of the city to another ; and also that he called the temple a 
house of pra}~er ' k for all nations," which is the expression 
really used in Isaiah ; but Jesus was not thinking of the 
heathen at that moment. It is of more importance to note 
that the same Evangelist represents the Master as simply vis- 
iting the temple and looking round on his first arrival and 
then retiring, since it wa.s rather late, but only to return the 

1 Compare vol. ii. p. 4, and 2 Samuel v. 8. 2 Psalm viii. 2. 



ObO JESUS APPEARS AT JERUSALEM. 

next day and assert himself by the cleansing of the temple 
We see at once how improbable this is. The next morning 
he was without his numerous escort, and, what is more, he 
was in a less sensitive and excited mood. His burst of in- 
dignation at seeing once more what he had carefully inspected 
the evening before would be very artificial, and his whole line 
of conduct unnatural, not to say impossible. 

Let us now look back for a moment, and sum up in a single 
word our conception of the precise project with which Jesus 
had entered Jerusalem. 

Here again we are driven to conjectures, for the Gospels 
make it appear as if he had come with the simple object of 
being put to death. But even suppose he expected the issue 
to be fatal, he must surely have contemplated the possibility 
of success, and must at any rate have had some definite pro- 
ject, whether destined to succeed or fail. It is not until we 
clearly understand what this project actually was that we can 
see the full bearings of his entiy into the city, of his asser- 
tion of his power in the temple court, and, generally, of his 
appearance at Jerusalem. 

We know that he had come to offer his people the kingdom 
of heaven, the perfect blessedness of close communion with 
the heavenly Father. If Israel accepted it, then Jesus would 
alread}^ have removed from the shoulders of his countrymen 
the yoke which Pharisaic scripturalism had laid upon them ; 
they would have broken in principle with their national pride 
and hatred, their formality and self- righteousness, — and God 
would do the rest. 

In the present circumstances, therefore, there was but one 
thing that could make the efforts of Jesus successful, but one 
thing that could rescue him personally, and also do what was 
far more important in his eyes, — preserve the kingdom of 
God for Israel, and Israel for the kingdom of God. That 
one thing was a rapid and increasing accession of disciples. 
a series of decisive proofs of sympatlry and powerful expres- 
sions of faith on the part of the masses. This would en- 
tirely disarm the opposition of the Pharisaic and the priestly 
parties. The temple and the synagogues would then, so to 
speak, be gradually emptied ; the approaching Passover would 
become the feast of the great redemption ; Jerusalem would 
thenceforth be the central point of the work of Jesus, and the 
thousands and tens of thousands of foreign Jews the messen- 
gers of his kingdom, That would be his success ! 



JESUS APPEARS AT JERUSALEM. 369 

He had therefore, properly speaking, no choice in the mat- 
ter. It was impossible for him to begin quietly and tenta- 
tively, as he had done in Galilee. He must at once and 
conspicuously challenge attention, and make it impossible to 
ignore his arrival and its significance. Averse as he was to 
airy sensational display, he could not now desire to enter the 
city and the temple in quiet simplicity ; and the Messianic 
demonstrations which accompanied his entry, though he had 
by no means provoked them, were not unacceptable to him. 
He knew well enough that a host of shallow misconceptions 
lurked beneath these exuberant cries and tokens of veneration, 
but yet he accepted them as well intentioned and as coming 
from the heart. They were the first public recognition of the 
significance of his person and his work ; and may not the 
hope have now revived in his heart that the}' might perchance 
be the first fruits of his harvest of souls, a prophecy^ that God 
would turn the people's hearts to him ? At the very worst, 
these loud expressions of devotion could not fail to further his 
purpose of announcing that he had come, and had come in 
the character of God's messenger, commissioned to establish 
the kingdom of heaven. It was but another step — and a 
step of which any accident might be the occasion — for him 
to proceed to some such striking and decisive action as that 
in the temple court. And this deed, occasioned by the re- 
pulsive scene that met him, and as little foreseen or premedi- 
tated on his part as the mode of his entry into the city, was 
an unmistakable indication to the public of the nature of the 
Messianic kingdom he came to found. 

But it need hardly be said that in spite of all this the work 
he contemplated at Jerusalem was of a purely religious and 
by no means of a political character, and that he had not the 
least intention of exciting a popular commotion. We must 
not dream of his departing by a hair's breadth from his prin- 
ciples, or becoming untrue to himself! It was, therefore, 
impossible for him to repeat or follow up this single deed. 
His only weapons were the power of the word, of the spirit, 
of the truth, — the appeal to the heart and conscience. Nor 
could he go a single step further in the employment of mate- 
rial means. But, since this was so, his impressive deed had 
not improved his chances of success ; for the masses could 
not fail to be disappointed when the sequel answered so it 
to the introduction, when the work was so unlike the mani- 
festo. And how could this disappointment have any but dis- 
astrous consequences? 

16* 



370 JESUS ON THE DEFENSIVE. 



Chapter XXX. 

JESUS ON THE DEFENSIVE. 

Matthew XXI. 17, 23-32, XXII. 15-40; John VII. 53- VIII 11.1 

THROUGHOUT his stay in Jerusalem Jesus never spent 
the night in the city itself. Every evening he went 
with the Twelve to Bethany, returning early in the morning 
to teach in the temple-sj'nagogue, or one of the other halls 
in the colonnades of the Forecourt. We have already fol- 
lowed him along the road from Bethany through Bethphage. 
The distance was about three-quarters of a league ; but a 
footpath, which ran across the Mount of Olives, shortened it 
by a few minutes' walk. 

Whatever it may have been at first, it ultimately became a 
pressing measure of precaution to retire at night to some 
refuge unknown to the authorities ; for, though they were 
afraid of a disturbance if they attempted to seize him by da} r , 
they might safely have snatched him from his bed at night. 
But we cannot tell whether such precautions were necessary 
from the first, or whether Jesus spent his nights outside Je- 
rusalem, in order to secure the opportunity of recovering his 
own composure, and enjoying a time of quiet intercourse with 
his friends in the evening and morning. 

The hospitable customs of the East make it probable that 
he remained under one roof during his whole visit, and would 
only have quitted it in obedience to some special necessity. 
Accordingly, we ma}' think of a certain Simon, known as 
''the leper," as his permanent host. The third Gospel is 
less accurate in representiug him as spending his nights on 
the Mount of Olives, and apparently in the open air in the 
garden of Gethsemane. 2 

The very first evening Jesus went with the Twelve, after 
dismissing the multitude we may suppose, to enjoy the quiet 
of the village where the night's lodging was prepared. It is 
not improbable that he knew Simon alread}\ Perhaps he 
had met him as he passed through Bethany at noon, perhaps 

1 Mark xi. 19, 27-33, xii. 13-34 a; Luke xix. 47, 48, xx. 1-8, 20-39, xxi 
37, 38. 

2 Luke xxi. 37, xxii. 39, 40. Compare John viii. 1. 



JESUS ON THE DEFENSIVE. 371 

later on in the day, and no long acquaintance would be 
needed to justify the offer of hospitality. Jesus had most 
likely spoken little after purifying the temple, for the day 7 
was far advanced when he entered Jerusalem, and the wea- 
rying journey, followed by such a tumult of emotions, must 
have so strained his powers as to make the opportunity of 
resting under a friendly roof extremely grateful. 

Here, then, he might gather strength for the struggle which 
he saw so clearly awaiting him. The following morning 
found him in the temple-court again at the spot whence he 
had dismissed his followers the night before, addressing both 
them and a number of others whom interest or curiosity had 
led to accompany them. Doubtless he assumed the author- 
ity of a prophet ; and his preaching, in accordance with the 
action of the previous day that introduced it, would be an 
emphatic exposition of the spiritual nature of the kingdom 
of God and of the moral demands it made upon its subjects. 
But see, he is interrupted ! A deputation of respected citi- 
zens approaches him with solemn dignity. Every one makes 
room for them, for they are members of the Sanhedrim. This 
Sanhedrim was composed x of " high priests " ("■ chief priests " 
in our Authorized Version) , elders, or heads of distinguished 
Jewish families and the most eminent Scribes. Under the 
name of "high priests" were included not only the priest 
who held the office in question at the moment, but all who 
had ever filled it in their lives, and even the most influential 
of the remaining members of the high priestly families. The 
members of this little deputation therefore, though it may 
not have had an official character, felt bound in their indi- 
vidual capacit} 7 to put some check upon the pretensions of 
the G-alilsean reformer. Nothing could be more appropriate, 
therefore, than their question, "By what authority are you 
doing all this, and who gave it to you?" 

Of course the} T referred especially to his vigorous proceed- 
ings when first he entered the temple-court, but not to them 
alone. When they observed the authoritative tone and atti- 
tude which he assumed in addressing the multitudes upon the 
subject of their dearest interests, they felt that unless he 
could offer some adequate defence of his use of such language 
they ought to crush him with the sentence of absolute con- 
demnation. So Jesus stood face to face with the honored 
representatives of ecclesiastical and civil authority among his 
people. How much must depend upon his answer ! He had 
i See pp. 5, 6. 



S72 JESUS ON THE DEFENSIVE. 

doubtless considered beforehand what position to take up. 
He was not at a loss for a moment, and answered with quiet 
dignity, " Let me also ask a question ; and if vou answer it 
then I will tell you on what authority I relv. Tell me, 
Whence was the baptism of John, from heaven or of men ? " 

Now this was far from a mere evasion. On the contrary, 
it was little short of a defiance. Jesus implied that, since 
He who had shortly before sent John to baptize the people 
had now commissioned him, Jesus, to found the kingdom of 
God, there was an immediate connection between his own 
work and that of the preacher of the wilderness. Those who 
had recognized John as a messenger of God must and would 
recognize him also ; whereas those who had utterly despised 
the Baptist had thereby given palpable proof of their tota" 
incapacitj' to appreciate a divine commission, and had there 
fore completely forfeited their right to demand his creden 
tials from him. Did they understand his meaning? Om 
of them, who served as the mouthpiece of the rest, answerec 
briefly and contemptuously, " We do not know;" as much 
as to sa} r " and we do not care." Our Gospels represent 
this answer as the result of the reflection: " If we sa}^, 
1 From heaven,' he will answer, ' Then why did you not 
believe him?' and if we say, 'Of men,' then we shall have 
the people upon us, for they all hold John to have been a 
prophet." Luke even makes them fear that " the whole peo- 
ple will stone them " if they give the latter answer. But all 
this deliberation is out of place. The distinguished men of 
Jerusalem had simply paid no attention whatever to the Bap- 
tist ; and Jesus therefore utterly denied their right to ques- 
tion him. His answer was as brief and as haught}' as theirs : 
' ' Neither shall I tell } T ou by what authority I have come for- 
ward here." 

His refusal to answer was a bold stroke ; but, as if to show 
that he knew exactly what he was doing, he continued after 
a moment's silence, M What think you? There was a man 
who had two sons, and one morning he went to the elder 
and said : l My son, }'ou must go and attend to the vine- 
yard to-day.' But he answered without even a show of 
respect, ' I shall not.' And yet, after a time, he was sorry, 
and went and set to work. Meanwhile the father had gone 
to the other and found him all obedience. ' I will go this 
very instant, father,' he replied, but did not. Which of these 
two obeyed his father?" We need not suppose, with the 
Evangelist, that the members of the deputation actually said 



.fESUS ON THE DEFENSIVE. 373 

"the first," for without waiting for an answer Jesus might 
well go on with his indignant application of the parable : "I 
tell 3 T ou, the publicans and harlots shall go into the kingdom 
of God before you ! For John came to lead you to the way 
of life ; and } t ou did not believe in him, though the very 
publicans and harlots listened to his preaching ; for not 
even such a sight as that could make } t ou repent and believe 
in him." 

This was an open declaration of war upon the priesthood, 
the nobility, and the Scribes. Compare this parable with that 
of the prodigal son, with which it has an unmistakable affin- 
ity. How changed is the conception of the second son, who 
is realty obedient in the one case, and is a mere hypocrite in 
the other I 1 It is true that in this parable Jesus had not the 
Pharisees exclusively in view, but this merety serves to make 
his judgment all the more emphatic. He embraces all the 
leaders of the people, the whole heterogeneous class of devout 
and high-born citizens who had thought it beneath their dig- 
nity to be moved b} T the preacher of tbc kingdom of God, — ■ 
he embraces them all under that sentence which put "the 
first" after "the last." When Jesus had once told them 
they came after the very offscourings of societ} T , it was im- 
possible that any friendly relations should subsist between 
him and them, unless they were to throw themselves in 
humble penitence at his feet, — and there was small chance 
of that ! 

And yet he had done well in taking up his true position 
at the very outset. He had not come to Jerusalem to win 
over the champions of Jewish orthodoxy or the guardians of 
the temple worship, but the people. He must let the nation 
know what it had to expect from him. This he had done 
by opening the battle at once without any preliminary 
skirmishing. 

It is deeply to be regretted that our authorities tell us little 
or nothing of the course of the struggle, and especially of the 
relations of Jesus and the people. Under the first head we 
only hear of a few argumentative encounters between Jesus 
and his opponents, preserved as specimens, and of certain 
violent denunciations uttered by Jesus in public. With these 
exceptions we have not a single address delivered by the 
Master in Jerusalem, or any thing beyond the repeated state- 
ment that he taught the people da}' by day. It is possible 

1 Compare pp. 248, 251. 



374 JESUS ON THE DEFENSIVE. 

enough that some of the specimens of his preaching we have 
already met with in considering his Galilsean ministry or his 
journey to the capital properly belong to this period ; 1 but 
it is probable that as a rule his preaching in Jerusalem was 
to some extent different in tone. The Gospels, however, 
leave us in uncertainty as to how he instructed the multitudes 
in the City of the Temple, what he taught them about the 
kingdom of God, its approach, the blessings it would bring, 
the qualifications for entering it, and the last judgment and 
repentance. But in that saying of his about breaking down 
and building up the temple, which we have mentioned already, 
and to which the Evangelists refer in their account of the 
trial of Jesus, we are justified in finding the substance of 
a whole discourse, or perhaps even of several discourses, 
delivered to the people. 

Again, we have only scattered hints as to the reception 
Jesus found at the people's hands. The statement that they 
took him for a prophet' 2 seems very probable intrinsically. 
At any rate the} 7 could not see or even suspect the Messiah 
in him ; while the high prophetic reputation he enjo3 r ed is 
evident from the fact that the Pharisees and Sadducees, who 
were usually very hostile to each other, combined against him. 
This indicates clearly enough that they were seriously alarmed 
by his popularity ; but the strongest proof of all is the dread 
with which they were inspired b} T his followers ; for at first 
they dared not touch him, and only ventured to seize him at 
last under cover of night, with the aid of treachery ; and 
even then they were in great trepidation, as we shall pres- 
ently see. 

But, on the other hand, the result showed that "ms party 
was far less numerous and zealous than had been supposed ; 
and the final issue proves that his efforts had failed. Indeed, 
we have already explained how the enthusiasm kindled by his 
first appearance must inevitably cool when he refused to fol- 
low up the stirring deed wuth which he had begun, and con- 
fined himself to simple preaching. Even zealous followers 
were bewildered when they saw that he did not take a single 
step towards founding or even preparing the kingdom of God, 
but, on the contrary, seemed to be retreating day by> day fur- 
ther from the goal they longed so impatiently to reach. The 
attitude assumed by the Scribes did Jesus incalculable harm ; 
for of course there would be vast numbers of the Jews, both 

1 See, for instance, pp 21S, 165 ft , et seq. 

2 Matthew xxi. 46. 



JESUS ON THE DEFENSIVE. 375 

at Jerusalem and elsewhere, who looked for guidance to these 
venerated leaders, so specially qualified b} r their studies, they 
thought, to form a judgment in such matters. Now these 
were the very men who opposed Jesus with all their might, 
and their warnings held great numbers back. Perhaps he 
himself alludes to this in his bitter reproach : " Woe to you, 
Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites that 3-011 are ! for you shut 
men .out of the kingdom of heaven. You will not enter 
yourselves, and prevent and forbid those that would ! " 

Let us now consider the records we still possess of the en- 
counters between Jesus and his various opponents. 

It was towards the beginning of his stay in Jerusalem that 
certain men came to him and, in a tone at once confidential 
and respectful, asked his opinion upon a very important point. 
Some of them were disciples of the Pharisaic school, and 
therefore bitterly opposed to the Roman supremacy over 
Judaea ; others were Herodians, that is to say enthusiasts 
for the Idumsean dynasty, who longed to restore the kingdom 
of Herod the Great : but all alike had been deputed to catch 
Jesus in his words. " Rabbi," they said, "we know that 
you alwaj-s say exactly what you think, without considering 
any one ; for } r ou care not how great or powerful any one 
ma}^ be, but simply preach the will of God in truth. Tell us, 
then, what vou think. May we pav tribute to the Emperor 
or not?" 

It was a cunning plot. The strain of flattery in which the} 7 
began shows their drift. They hoped he would declare that 
any one who paid the poll-tax, and so recognized the Roman 
emperor as his monarch, was infringing on the rights of the 
Lord, the king of Israel, and that God was jealous of his 
honor and would hold the deed apostasy. The way in which 
Jesus had entered the city, together with his nationally and 
that of his followers, gave reason to hope that he shared the 
opinions of Judas, the Galilaean, on the point at issue. 1 Now 
a popular leader who taught such seditious doctrines as this 
would be sure to be seized by the governor and put to death 
without loss of time. If, on the other hand, he declared that 
the tribute must be paid, that would do nearly as well, for he 
would at once fall in the opinion of the people. 

He saw through their project. "O hypocrites ! " he 
answered, with undisguised aversion, "why do you try to 
catch me thus ? Let me see the tribute money ! " Now cer« 
1 Compare pp. 89, 348. 



376 JESUS ON THE DEFENSIVE. 

tain coins had been struck for use in Judaea, without the 
Emperor's head and with a simple inscription, on purpose to 
meet the Jewish objection to images ; but the coin his ques- 
tioners now showed to Jesus was not one of these. It was 
a genuine Roman denarius, representing the amount of the 
poll-tax. This was probably no accident. Jesus then 
pointed to the head and name of Tiberius on the coin, and 
said, "Whose image and superscription is this?" "The 
Emperor's," the} T answered. " Then give the Emperor what 
is the Emperor's, and God what is God's," said Jesus, as he 
returned the coin. He meant to snj : " Since this coin shows 
that 3 t ou are subject to the Emperor of Rome, accept the 
position and give him what is due ; and then take care that 
3 T ou give to God what he has a right to expect and demand 
of you. It is because } t ou have failed in your dut} T as God's 
subjects that 3-011 are now Caesar's slaves ; and as long as you 
fall short of your duty to God you must be content to bear 
the burdens laid on you by Caesar. It is repentance, faithful 
self-consecration to God, and not disputes as to the permis- 
sibility of tribute, — still less resistance to a well-merited 
chastisement, — that must bring the great deliverance. It 
will not be } T our murmuring, but the coming of the king- 
dom of God, that will put an end to the supremacy of the 
heathen." 

The design was utterly wrecked, and the questioners 
retired in amazement at such presence of mind. 

Another day Jesus came early in the morning from the 
Mount of Olives 1 to the temple, where the people whom he 
had dismissed the evening before drew together again in great 
numbers; and he sat down as usual to teach them. Then 
there came a company of Scribes and others, well known for 
the strictness of their piety and their religious zeal. It was 
evidently an important matter that had brought them there, 
and their gestures and expressions indicated no small indigna- 
tion and aversion, the object of which was a certain woman 
whom they were dragging with them in mute despair to the 
temple-court. The multitude made way for them respect- 
fully. In gloomy silence they placed the unhappy woman 
right opposite Jesus and formed a semi-circle in front of him. 
Then one of them came forward and explained their object : 
" Rabbi, this woman is an adulteress, taken in the very act. 
Now Moses commands in the Law that such must be stoned ; 
and we wish to know from you what we ought to do." 

1 See John viii. 1, and compare p. 370. 



JESUS ON THE DEFENSIVE. 377 

There is a difficulty here. The Law does indeed attach 
the penalty of death to this offence, but not specifically 
stoning. Nor is it quite clear what these people were aiming 
at, though they evidently hoped to find something in the 
answer upon which they could base an accusation. Had 
the}' heard that Jesus was very far from orthodox on the 
subject of the marriage laws ? At any rate they knew that 
he had shown an offensive leniency towards people of bad 
character ; so perhaps they hoped that by condoning so 
shameful an offence lie would lower himself in the eyes of the 
people, and appear to sanction the grossest immorality, while 
at the same time giving them grounds for a legal accusation. 
However this ma}' be, Jesus made no reply, — did not even 
rebuke their malice, — but bending down and making lines 
on the ground with his finger, as though he were thinking of 
something else, left them to their own consciences. But they 
did not feel this tacit rebuke, and impatiently repeated their 
question. Then he looked up with a piercing glance and 
said, " If any one of you is without sin, let him cast the first 
stone at her ! " Then he bent down again and made lines on 
the ground as before. It was as much as to say, " Go on, 
and let the law take its course, if you can justify yourselves 
in doing so. If any of you can declare himself free from all 
impurity of thought, word, or deed, let him come forward as 
a witness at the trial and the execution." l 

This shaft had struck. The pious accusers looked down. 
Their consciences were roused, and one by one they slunk 
away, the most distinguished first, troubling themselves no 
further about the wretched woman, who still stood riveted to 
the spot, half stupefied with remorse and shame. In a few 
moments Jesus raised his head again, and seeing no one there 
but his own hearers and the woman, he said to the latter, 
" Where are your accusers ? Has not one of them condemned 
you?" "No, Lord !" she murmured. "Neither do I con- 
demn you. Go, and sin no more ! " said Jesus. 

Then would he have left every crime unpunished? That 
was not the question. In referring the matter to Jesus, these 
men had removed it from the court of civil law into the very 
different court of the private conscience. Jesus therefore 
simply declared that God was better served by forbearing 
pity for the sinful woman than by the strict enforcing of the 
law. Judged in the court of conscience, he denied that his 
contemporaries, who so shamelessly contracted and dissolved 
1 Compare Deuteronomy xvii. 7. 



378 JESUS ON THE DEFENSIVE. 

the marriage tie without violating the Law, had any right to 
utter sentence on the adulteress. It seems rather improbable, 
however, that Jesus should have found it so easy to arouse 
the conscience of these self-righteous devotees ; and the 
story, though very beautiful, is open to suspicion both on this 
ground and on those already hinted at. We ma}- also add 
that its origin is a matter of doubt. It stands at present in 
the eighth chapter of John r but is certainly out of place there. 
It evidently belongs to the same circle of stories as those in 
the Synoptics, and should be placed in the account of the last 
conflict of Jesus. It is no longer possible for us to tell why 
it is not there. For the various reasons indicated, it deserves 
less confidence than the other records of the encounters of 
Jesus with the differe: \t parties among his people during the 
closing weeks of his lfe. 

In the cases hitherto examined, the opponents of Jesus 
were intent upon drawing him into utterances in conflict with 
the Law, or dangerous to the public tranquillity, and so 
involving him with the ecclesiastical or civil authorities. 
But this was not always their object. Sometimes they simply 
tried to drive him into a corner and expose him before all the 
people by means of some insoluble question. A few examples 
of these questions also have been preserved. 

One clay, for instance, certain Sadducees began to argue 
with him about the resurrection. The}' probably took occa- 
sion to do so from an address to the people in which he had 
spoken of the coming of the kingdom of God, when the pious 
dead should return from the underworld and live again. 1 Now 
the worldly-minded and conservative Sadducees contemptu- 
ously rejected the doctrines which had risen since the forma- 
tion of their own party, — such as the belief in a resurrection 
and the elaborate doctrine of the angels,- — especially if they 
had sprung from the bosom of the national part}', and were 
fostered by the enthusiasm of the zealots, which was pre- 
eminently the case with the doctrine of the resurrection. 
Indeed, they looked with suspicion and dislike upon the 
preaching of the kingdom of God in general. It was but 
seldom that the Sadducees were among the hearers of Jesus ; 
and this is perhaps 3 the first time that we find him in contact 
with them, except on the single occasion of their demanding 

i Compare pp. 331, 332. 

2 Acts xxiii. 8 ; compare p. 46, 

a See p. 242. 



JESUS ON THE DEFENSIVE. 379 

his authority for what he did. It seems, however, that some 
of them happened to be present when he was speaking on 
this ver}^ question of the resurrection ; so they urged a diffi- 
cult}* which had doubtless more than once done good service 
against the Pharisees. "Rabbi!" the} T said, "3'ou were 
speaking just now of the resurrection; but how will it be? 
Take an instance. You know the Law of Moses says that 
when a man dies childless, his brother must many his widow, 
and the eldest son must bear the dead man's name. 1 Now 
there was once a family of seven brothers ; and the eldest 
of them married, but died childless, — so the next took his 
widow ; but he died without children too, and the widow was 
taken by the third. And so it went on till all the seven 
brothers had married her, — and all had died childless. Fi- 
nally the woman died herself. Now when the} T all rise again, 
whose wife will she be? — for all the seven were married 
to her ! " 

Whether this had really occurred or not was a matter of no 
consequence. It was possible ; and that was enough to give 
the Sadducees a right to treat it as actual. We must also 
concede that it raised an unanswerable objection to the doc 
trine of the resurrection as conceived by the Jews, — that is 
to say, as a renewal under more favorable circumstances of 
the former life. But for Jesus the difficulty did not exist ; for 
he had formed a far more spiritual conception of the new life 
in the kingdom of God. So he struck the broad principle at 
once and went to the very root of the matter in his answer, — 
which ma} r be paraphrased thus: "The denial of the resur- 
rection rests upon a two-fold misconception, — upon want of 
insight into the Holy Scriptures, and misapprehension of the 
power of God revealed in the saints. For they neither many 
nor are given in marriage when they have risen again, but 
live here on earth as the angels live in heaven : such is the 
power of God revealed in his children. And, as for the doc- 
trine of the Scriptures about a new life following after death, 
have you never read the chapter of the ' Thornbush,' in the 
books of Moses,' 2 where God says, ' I am the God of Abra- 
ham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob ' ? Now, 
surely, He is the God of the living and not of the dead ! " 

It must be admitted that Jesus put a far deeper and richer 
meaning into the text he quoted than it originally had, but 
this does not at all surprise us ; 3 and, judged by the rules of 

1 See vol. i. pp. 425 ff. 2 See vol. 1. p. 255. 

8 Compare pp. 224 ff. 



380 JESUS ON THE DEFENSIVE. 

interpretation and style of argument current at the time, his 
proof of immortality was so complete that his questioners 
were absolutely silenced and his hearers were filled with 
amazement. He meant, " If God called himself the God of 
the patriarchs centuries after the}' were dead, we are forced 
to the conclusion that they are not dead for ever, but will rise 
again. He is too great to be a God of lifeless shades ; and 
man, whose God he deigns to call himself, is too great to re- 
main a shadow for eternity. And when the power of God 
reveals itself in all its glory at the resurrection, relations will 
spring up between man and man upon the renovated earth 
so completely unlike those known at present that they can 
only fitly be compared with the intercourse of angels." Luke, 
the latest of our three Evangelists, elaborates the words of 
Jesus thus : x " Those who dwell in the world as it now is 
marry and are given in marriage ; but those who are accounted 
worthy to rise from the dead and share the perfect life that 
shall be will no longer many or be given in marriage. Neither 
will the}' an}- longer be subject to death, for they will be like 
the angels ; and, inasmuch as the}' share the resurrection, 
the} 7 will have a portion in the life and glory of God himself. 
And as for the shades, read the chapter of the ' Thornbush,' 
where God says, ' I am the God of Abraham and the God of 
Isaac and the God of Jacob ! ' Now, surely, He is the God 
of the living and not of the dead ; for in His eye the shades 
have already risen." Such additions to the words of Jesus 
may well be justified on the principle that the exalted concep- 
tions seized and uttered by him necessarily imply still more 
than he himself could see, through the trammels laid upon 
him by the current notions of his age. If he expected the 
power of God to wake a new and glorious form of life in the 
faithful at the hour of the resurrection, after a more or less 
protracted sleep in death, we are justified in going a step fur- 
ther and rising to the hope that the spirit of man, educated 
and hallowed by God in this life, will rise at once to the 
higher life at the very moment of death. If he thought the 
bond between God and his dutiful children too close to be 
finally loosed by death, we accept the thought in all its ful- 
ness, and declare that not only is it impossible for this tie to 
be broken eternally, but it cannot be broken for a moment ! 
God's children cannot be lifeless shadows even for a time. 
In a word, Jesus was defending the belief that we shall return 
to life; but in doing so he laid the firm foundation for the 
hope that we shall never die. 

i Luke xx. 31-38. 



JESUS ON THE DEFENSIVE. 381 

There were probably certain Pharisees present at this en- 
counter ; and in any case it soon came to their ears that Jesus 
had silenced their opponents on the very point upon which 
the}- had so often disputed with them. Under other circum- 
stances this would have given them great delight ; but, since 
they were just now combining with their natural enemies 
against this formidable rival, they found small satisfaction 
in their discomfiture. They laid their heads together, and 
one of them who was deeply read in the Law took occasion, 
probably by the Master's teaching on some other clay, to ask 
him a test question often discussed in the rabbinical schools : 
kk Rabbi, which is the first commandment in the Law?" 
Without reserve or ambiguit}* Jesus answered, "'Thou 
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and 
sense.' 1 This is the first great commandment. And the 
second is like it, and is this : ' Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
as tlryself.' 2 On these two commandments all the Law and 
the Prophets are built." 

Luke does not mention this conversation here, 3 but makes 
the Scribes applaud Jesus for having refuted the Sadducees. 
In this he follows Mark, who represents the questioner as 
coming to Jesus without any sinister design whatever, and 
testifying to his complete agreement with him by enthusi- 
astically repeating his answer: "Yes, Rabbi! it is true. 
The Lord our God is the one Lord, 4 and there is no God but 
He ; and to love Him with all the heart and mind and strength, 
and to love one's neighbor as one's self, is more than any 
sacrifice or burnt offering." Then Jesus, on his side, testifies 
to the Scribe's true insight in the words, "You are not 
far from the kingdom of God." 

Whatever we may think of these divergences they do not 
touch the essence of the matter, which is the conjunction by 
Jesus of these two verses from the fifth and the third book 
of Moses. This is far more than a lucky hit. Jesus uttered 
his whole soul in it. With good cause has Christendom 
devoted its special attention to these words, and attached the 
utmost value to them. The}' tell us what Jesus held to be 
the essence of religion, for we must not suppose that he was 
summing up the Israelitish religion in distinction from his 
own. In the first place he never recognized any such dis- 
tinction ; for we know that, in his attack upon the conception 
of piety current in his own generation, he regarded himself 

1 Deuteronomy vi. 5. 2 Leviticus xix. 18. 

1 See pp. 298-30L 4 Deuteronomy vi. 4. 



382 JESUS TAKES THE AGGRESSIVE. 

as at one with Moses and the prophets. And, besides this, 
God, whom he would have man love with all his being, is no 
longer really Israel's Yahweh ; nor is a man's neighbor any 
longer his fellow-countryman and fellow-believer only : so 
that Jesus, in point of fact, is not summing up the old 
Israelite religion, but the new religion that had grown out of 
it under his own vivifying touch. 1 Finally, remember that 
" these two commandments" do not stand over against each 
other as essentially distinct. Jesus would have us love our 
neighbors and ourselves for God's sake, and as children of 
God ; or, in other words, he would have us love God in our 
neighbor and ourself. Without intending it, Jesus sketches 
in these two strokes his own individuality and his own life. 

We have now seen Jesus attacked and put to the test again 
and again, and have had ample occasion to admire the clear- 
ness of insight and presence of mind which invariably gave 
him a read} T answer and enabled him triumphantly to maintain 
the position he had taken. Na\ r , the attempts to injure him 
have but served to throw an ever stronger light upon his 
religious and moral greatness, and have therefore taught us to 
understand him better and to reverence him more. 



Chapter XXXI. 

JESUS TAKES THE AGGRESSIVE. 

Mat mew XXII. 41-46, XXIII. 1-7, 16-28 ; Luke XL 52, 47, 48, XX. 
47, XVI. 19-31 ; Mark XII. 1-12, XIV. 1, 2.2 

HITHERTO we have only seen Jesus defending himself 
against the plots of his enemies. But gradually a 
change took place, and those who had at first thrown them- 
selves in his way with overweening confidence now drew back. 
They were no match for him. His controversial triumph was 
complete. No one, we are told, dared question him further, 
and we have no more records of his opponents intentionally 
drawing him into disputes. Upon this Jesus changed his 

i Compare pp. 22S ff., 220 ff. 

2 Matthew xxiii. 13.29-32, xxi. 33-46, xxvi. 3 5; Mark xii. 34 b 40 ; Luke 
xx. 40-46, xi. 39-46, xx. 9-19, xxii. 1, 2. 



JESUS TAKES THE AGGRESSIVE. 383 

own attitude and took the offensive. A few specimens of his 
attacks are preserved. 

" How can the Scribes say that the Messiah is David's 
son?" he once exclaimed in the temple, before a crowd of 
hearers. " For David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, 
declares, ' The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right 
hand till I have cast thine enemies beneath thy feet ! ' Now 
if David himself calls him ' Lord,' how can he be his own 
son ? " 

It is true that Psalm ex., the opening lines of which are 
quoted by Jesus as sacred or inspired Scripture, was not 
composed hy David and does not contain any words addressed 
to the Messiah ; but this raises no real difficulty, for both 
Jesus and his contemporaries accepted the Davidic author- 
ship and Messianic significance of the psalm upon which the 
argument is built, without the least reserve. The bearing of 
the argument itself, however, is far from clear. Is it possible 
that the foes of Jesus had heard of his pretensions to being 
the Messiah ; that they had attempted to disarm them by 
reminding the people that he was not a descendant of David, 
and that Jesus therefore wished to show that the Messiah 
was not a son of David at all ? Or did he simply intend to 
point out that the Scriptures themselves represented the 
assumed Davidic origin of the Messiah as a matter of no mo- 
ment, since the founder of the kingdom of God had a higher 
title than that of Son of David ? This is the sense in which the 
first Evangelist appears to have understood him. He makes 
Jesus say to the assembled Pharisees, " What do } t ou think 
about the Messiah ? Whose son is he ? " The} r answer un- 
hesitatingly, " David's." And Jesus then refers them to the 
verses of the psalm already quoted, and concludes : "If 
David calls him ' Lord,' how can he be his son ? " In any 
case these words distinctly implied that Jesus did not conceive 
of the Messiah as a king after the model of David. 

Hostility ran ever higher. Jesus did not shrink from 
openly attacking his opponents and exposing them before the 
people. The Scribes, who gave the whole Pharisaic school 
its tone, incurred his special indignation. What must the 
people have thought of the sentence thej^ heard him utter 
upon their pious leaders at the very focus of Jewish ortho- 
doxy and headquarters of formalism ! We have already 
had special occasion 1 to give a few specimens of his preach- 
1 See pp. 375 ff., and p. 292. 



384 JESUS TAKES THE AGGRESSIVE. 

ing against the Pharisees, but we will now repeat them in the 
characteristic though less original form in which they appear 
in Luke : — 

"Woe to you, learned ones in the Law! for you have 
taken awa} T the key of knowledge. You sta} T outside your- 
selves, and keep out those that try to enter. Woe to jou ! 
for 3-011 build the tombs of the prophets, and 3-our fathers 
murdered them. Thus do you testify your approval of your 
fathers' deeds ; for they committed the murder, and j on 
perpetuate its memoiy ! " 

Jesus also made a tierce onslaught upon the scholastic hair- 
splitting that trod true holiness in the dust and unmanned 
the conscience. A melancholy instance was furnished b} T the 
opinions of the Scribes on the subject of oaths. We know 
what Jesus himself thought about them, 1 and can therefore 
understand his indignation against all the subterfuges and 
qualifications of the schools. "Woe to you, blind guides! 
for you say, ' If a man swears by"the temple, it is nothing ; 
but if he swears by the gold of the temple, it is binding.' 
Fools and blind ! Is the gold more than the temple which 
makes it sacred ? Or again : - If a man swears b} T the altar, 
it is nothing ; but if he swears by the sacrifice upon the 
altar, he must keep his oath.' Blind that 3-011 are ! Is the 
sacrifice more than the altar that makes it sacred? I tell 
you, whoever swears by the altar swears by all that is on it 
too ; and whoever swears by the temple swears by Him who 
dwells in it ; and whoever swears by heaven swears by the 
throne of God and by Him who sits upon it." 

In the same way he mercilessly scourges the pitiful formal- 
ism so scrupulously anxious about trifles, and yet so wide of 
swallow with regard to veritable sins. " Woe to 3*011, Scribes 
and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are ! for 3-011 take care 
that the tithes of mint and anise and cummin are duty paid, 
but neglect the weightier matters of the Law, — justice, mercy, 
and integrhVy. In observing the one how dare 3-011 to neglect 
the other? Blind guides that 3-011 are! straining out gnats 
and swallowing camels ! Woe to you, Scribes and Phari- 
sees, hypocrites! for 3-011 cleanse the outside of cup and 
platter, but the inside is full of plunder and license. Blind 
Pharisee ! first clean the inside of the cup, and then the out- 
side will be clean also. Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, 
hypocrites that you are ! 3-ou are like so mairy whitewashed 
graves that seem all pure outside, but are full of dead men's 

1 See pp. 226, 227. 



JESUS TAKES THE AGGRESSIVE. 385 

bones and all uncleanness within. So do you seem righteous 
externally, but within are full of hypocrisy and evasion of the 
Law." 

We ma}' note that this denunciation deals throughout with 
the question of cleanness. 1 It begins by referring to the 
scrupulous piety that would not for the world make use of 
the smallest garden herbs without first making sure that the 
tithes, though of hardly any value, had been duly paid ; for 
otherwise the}' would be unclean and would pollute all those 
that used them. The conclusion alludes to the custom of the 
people of Jerusalem of whitewashing the tombs every year a 
month before Passover. The object was to warn the trav- 
ellers not to come too near these unclean places ; and just so 
the ostentatious display of cleanness on the part of the Phar- 
isees seemed to Jesus like a warning that all manner of wick- 
edness lay concealed behind it. Luke did not understand 
the reference, and lost the point by turning the saying thus : 
" Woe to you ! for 3*011 are like hidden graves that men may 
walk upon unwittingly." 

But this does not affect the essential point. --What a 
sweeping condemnation ! " we are tempted to exclaim. But 
remember that these words were uttered at Jerusalem ; and, to 
understand the change that had come over the Master's feel- 
ings with regard to Pharisaism, we must bear in mind not only 
the growing hostility on either side, but the fact that here in 
the City of the Temple orthodoxy was driven to its extremest 
consequences and appeared in all its accursed moral sterility. 
Indeed, there was a Jewish proverb to the effect that nine 
out of every ten hypocrites in the world might be found at 
Jerusalem. Even in Galilee Jesus might have said, as he 
did now before all the people in Jerusalem, '-Beware of the 
Scribes, who take such delight in pacing along the streets in 
their long gowns, in receiving the respectful salutation of 
' Rabbi ' in the market place, in taking the front seats in the 
synagogues, and reclining in the best places at suppers ! 
They do all their pious deeds in the hope of being seen. 
Look how broad the}* make the ribbons written over with 
texts that they bind round their brows and their left arms 
when they pray, and how deep the fringes of their mantles 
are ! " 2 But it was only here in Jerusalem, at the very centre 
of Judaism, where the fatal principles of formalism had so 
long spread unchecked in rank luxuriance, it was only here 
that he could fairly reproach the Pharisees in such words as 
1 Compare pp. 276, 277. 2 See p. 250. 

VOL. III. 17 



386 JESUS TAKES THE AGGRESSIVE. 

these : ' ' The}' bind heavy burdens that none can bear, and 
lay them upon men's shoulders ; but they themselves will not 
touch them with their little fingers ! They devour widows' 
houses, and make long prayers to save appearances. All 
the heavier is the judgment they are bringing down upon 
their heads ! " It need not surprise us to hear all this. Out- 
ward piety too often leads to formalism, and formalism to 
hypocrisy. 

We must here observe that the several denunciations of 
the Pharisees, and more especially of the Scribes and lawyers, 
have not come down to us in their original form and connec- 
tion. Luke, for instance, represents the greater part of them 
as uttered on the journey, and moreover in the house of a 
Pharisee who was entertaining Jesus. 1 Nothing could be 
more inappropriate than this. Luke's Ebionite authority 
makes Jesus, after declaring that the contents of the cup and 
platter were acquired by injustice and avarice, add the words, 
"Ah, fools! Did not He who made the outside make the 
inside too? Then give away that which is inside in alms, 
and behold it will all be clean for you ! " 

The first Gospel, though it only gives a few specimens of 
the preaching of Jesus at Jerusalem against the popular 
leaders, is fuller than either of the others ; but to say noth- 
ing of its stringing together sayings which were uttered upon 
different days and upon different occasions, and taking up 
fragments that are quite out of place, it introduces the whole 
with the following words, which certainly rose in Jewish- 
Christian circles, and are absolutely opposed to what Jesus 
meant: "The Scribes and Pharisees have sat down upon 
the seat of Moses ; therefore, whatever they tell you, observe 
and do it ; but do not imitate their deeds, for their precepts 
are fair while their lives are foul." Observe and do what they 
command ! As if this were not in absolute contradiction 
with what follows ! As if Jesus had not come to Jerusalem 
for the very purpose of breaking their yoke ! 

And here we ma} 7 naturally ask whether there are no 
threats or denunciations launched by Jesus against the party 
of the Sadducees. The third Gospel does indeed contain a 
picture which strongly reminds us of the haughty and osten- 
tatious priestly nobility, with its selfish neglect and contempt 
of the lower classes. We will reproduce it here ; for if any 
of its lines were drawn by the hand of Jesus, it can only have 

1 See p. 244. 



JESUS TAKES THE AGGRESSIVE. 387 

been at this period. We must premise, however, that the 
story in which it is embodied cannot possibly be genuine as 
a whole. It is known as " the rich man and Lazarus." 

Once there was a rich man who was clothed in the costliest 
robes, — a cloak of purple wool and an under garment of fine 
Egyptian linen, — and wiio fared sumptuously every day. 
At the portico of his noble mansion there lay a wretched 
beggar of the name of Lazarus, all covered with sores, glad 
if he might satisfj^ his hunger with the fragments that fell 
from the rich man's table ; and even these he must share 
with the dogs of the street that came running up when the 
broken meats were thrown out. Nay, — lowest depth of 
humiliation ! — these dogs would come and lick his wounds, 
so familiar had they grown with him. Thus for a while he 
lived the life of a dog, and then he died ; but, as he breathed 
his last, the angels came and bore him to the paradise in the 
underworld, to lay him in the bosom of Abraham, in a place 
of honor at the feast of the provisionally blessed. And into 
the sumptuous hall Death likewise came and snatched the 
owner of the palace from the midst of his abundance and 
enjoyment ; but he, while the last honors were being paid 
him upon earth with lavish care, while his corpse was being 
richly embalmed and laid in earth as befitted his high rank, 
went down into the regions of death, to the fire of Gehenna. 
Here as he lay, tortured with unutterable pain, he raised his 
ej T es and saw far off the feast of the Father of the Faithful, 
reclining on whose couch he discerned the man who had once 
been a beggar at his gate. Then he could not restrain the 
prayer for a moment's respite. "Father Abraham!" he 
cried, " have ptty on me, and let Lazarus come here to dip 
the tip of his finger in the water and cool my tongue, for I 
am tortured in these flames." But not even this could be 
granted him. "Child!" answered Abraham, "remember 
that you received your full share of blessings in your life, 
and Lazarus nothing but misery ; and, therefore, he is now 
received here- with a loving welcome, while you are in torture. 
And, besides all this, there is a deep chasm gaping wide 
between us which none could pass, how great soever his 
desire, either from us to you or from } T ou to us." The 
wretched man now saw that there was no more hope for him ; 
but he had still a petition left : " Then, father ! send him to 
my kindred, for I have still five brothers ; and let him urge 
them to beware lest they, too, come into this place of tor- 
ment." But even this request was refused, not as impossi- 



388 JESUS TAKES THE AGGRESSIVE. 

ble, but as useless. " They have Moses and the Prophets. 
Let them listen to them," said Abraham. But the other, 
remembering only too well how he had known the Scriptures 
himself, but had scattered their warnings to the winds, made 
one last appeal : " Na} T , but Father Abraham, if a man were 
to rise from the realms of the dead, then they would repent." 
The hope was vain, and the appeal was therefore bootless. 
" If they will not listen tc Moses and the Prophets," said the 
patriarch in conclusion, "they would not be convinced 
though one should rise from the dead." 

This is unquestionably a composite story. Luke appears 
to have had in view the heathen world shut out from every 
hope and blessing in contrast to the privileged but pitiless 
Jews ; but this cannot have been the original significance of 
Lazarus and the rich man. And even apart from the modifi- 
cations introduced bj T the Evangelist in accordance with his 
own conception, the stor}^ is evidently not a single whole. 
The latter part, perhaps from "and besides all this," is an 
addition ; and in any case the request that Lazarus may be 
sent to earth and all that follows it has no connection with 
what goes before. If we go on to ask the meaning of the 
whole and of the separate details, we have no difficult}', to be- 
gin with, in recognizing a veiy marked Ebionite spirit. The 
rich man is accused of nothing but spending his treasures foi 
Ms own enjo3 T ment. There is not so much as a hint that he 
was irreligious or unfeeling. And Lazarus tastes the joys of 
paradise not for his piety, but simply as a compensation for his 
miser}' upon earth. Nor does the repentance which the Law 
and Prophets should produce mean an} T thing else than the 
distribution of all one's wealth in alms. 1 Equally obvious is 
the concluding blow at the unbelief of the Jewish aristocrac} T 
which would not even yield to the preaching of the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus from the dead." 2 Yet another proof of the late 
origin of the parable is the representation of a state of pro- 
visional compensation in the shadow-land before the resur- 
rection. Such a conception was certainly foreign to Jesus 
himself. 

This is the only parable in which a proper name occurs ; 
and this point has naturally given rise to no little speculation. 
Perhaps the name Lazarus, which is the same as Eleazar, is 
merely symbolical, and should be taken in its original signifi- 
cation as "God-help." Perhaps, too, the beggar is called 

1 Luke vi. 24, xvi. 9, 11, xi. 41. 

2 Acts iv. 1 ff., 23, v. 17. 



JESUS TAKES THE AGGRESSIVE. 389 

after Abraham's servant, 1 who had become the t} T pe of the 
faithful slave, the virtuous member of the lower classes. If 
so, Lazarus perhaps represents the humbler classes in gen- 
eral, regarded of course in the most favorable possible light. 
In that case it is exceedingly possible that the rich man rep- 
resents the distinguished and luxurious priestly order. The 
Jewish tradition tells of the gold and silver dinner-services of 
the Sadducees ; and it is well known that they troubled them- 
selves very little about the common people, and placed them 
almost on a level with the heathen. The dogs, which were 
not domestic animals but were loathed as unclean beasts, 
certainly represent the heathen. Finally, one might be 
tempted to find in the five brothers of the rich man a refer- 
ence to the most distinguished of the high-priestly families, 
namely that of Annas ; for Josephus tells us that this man 
was pronounced the most enviable of mortals because, after 
filling the office of high priest for man} 7 years himself, he sub- 
sequently saw it held by each of his five sons. Meanwhile we 
must leave it uncertain how far this parable ma} T be founded 
upon some saying or description of Jesus, some reproach he 
hurled at the Sadducees, or some threat that the position of 
things should one day be reversed. 

The tension had gradually reached its height. We possess 
a clear indication of this in a parable, most likely due to Jesus 
himself, placed by all three Evangelists in this period, and 
characterizing the last hours of the conflict with the over- 
powering foe. We must picture Jesus in the temple, shortly 
before he left it for the last time, speaking in the hearing not 
only of the multitudes but of several of the high priests and 
Scribes, who had lately given up all attempts to conceal their 
anger and aversion. It was an imitation of a denunciation 
by the prophet Isaiah, 2 which he began in sombre tones as 
follows : — 

A certain man planted a vineyard, set a hedge round it, 
sunk a wine-press, and built a watch-tower ; and when every 
thing was complete let out the vinej'ard to a compan} 7 of hus- 
bandmen for a stated portion of the produce, and went him- 
self into a foreign land. So when the grape harvest had come, 
he sent one of his servants to his tenants to receive his share 
of the fruits. But the tenants seized the servant and beat 
him and sent him back empty-handed. Then the owner sent 
unother servant, but they wounded him in the head and mal< 
1 See vol. i. pp. 155-161. 2 See vol. ii. p. 251. 



390 JESUS TAKES THE AGGRESSIVE. 

treated him shamefully. Still he sent another, but they killed 
him. Then he sent many more, but they maltreated some 
and killed others. His forbearance was not yet exhausted, 
and at last he sent his son ; for he thought " at least they will 
respect my son." But when the husbandmen saw him, they 
said to each other, ' ' There is the heir ! Let us kill him and 
keep his heritage ourselves." So they seized him, and dragged 
him outside the vineyard, and slew him. 

After a moment's pause, Jesus went on with an emphasis 
that could not be mistaken : " Now when the master of the 
vineyard returns, what will he do to the husbandmen? He 
will put those wretches to the death that they deserve, and 
give the vineyard to others who will bring him the fruits in 
due season." After another moment's pause he concluded : 
"Have you never read that passage of the scripture, 1 'The 
stone which the builders rejected is made the chief corner- 
stone ; it was the Lord that made it so, and it is wonderful 
in our eyes ' ? " 

So we read in all three Gospels, with only unimportant 
variations. But Matthew and Luke have each of them a few 
words more ; the latter, 2 following up the metaphor of the 
stone, sa} r s : "Whoever falls on this stone shall be broken, 
out on whomsoever it falls it shall dash him to pieces ; " 
the former, interpreting the story itself, adds : " Therefore I 
tell j^ou that the kingdom of God shall be taken away from 
jou. and given to a people that brings forth its fruits." Both 
of these sayings may very well be genuine, though the last 
of them is out of place. They both of them illustrate the 
thought of the discourse, if it needs any further illustration. 8 
Jesus sketches with moving and startling distinctness God's 
rule over Israel, who has cast his warnings to the wind, who 
has maltreated and slain the prophets in times past, and is on 
the point of laying murderous hands upon the Messiah now ; 
together with the certainty of the approaching judgment now 
that the last effort has failed. In conclusion, he foreshadows 
in a single breath his own rejection and exaltation, with the 
assurance that the guilt of men cannot really thwart the pur- 
pose of God to raise the new Temple of which he, the Mes- 
siah, will be as it were the foundation. Meanwhile we have 
never heard such gloomy words from him before ; and this is 
not surprising, for now that the contest is as good as over, 

1 Psalm cxviii. 22, 23. 

2 Matthew xxi. 44 is not genuine. 
8 Compare pp. 297, 298. 



JESUS TAKES THE AGGRESSIVE. 391 

the tone of deliberate announcement naturally takes the place 
of menacing appeal. 

There still remain two points for our consideration. The 
Evangelists place this parable immediately after the conversa- 
tion about the authority of Jesus and the baptism of John. 1 
Now, the connection of thought, "You who have rejected 
John, the last of the prophets, will lay hands upon me also," 
is very marked, and in so far the arrangement is a good one. 
But, for all that, the parable is certainly out of place at the 
commencement of the work of Jesus in Jerusalem. How 
could the courteous forms of address and controversy we have 
witnessed be possible after the utterance of such a sentence? 
And at that early period it would have been a needlessly ex- 
asperating defiance, and would not even have been true, for 
no definite determination had as yet been reached to make 
awa} T with Jesus. And since this parable is clearly the last 
public utterance of the Master in the hearing of his enemies, 
it is exceedingly noteworthy that it contains the first distinct 
assertion he ever made before them of the significance of his 
person and his office. Here he ranks himself above the 
prophets, and speaks of himself as the corner-stone of the 
edifice of God. He exclaims to them, as it were, " However 
obstinately 3'ou refuse to recognize me, I am the man — I 
declare it plainly — who is to found the kingdom of God." 

And this brings us to our second observation. The Gos- 
pels are more or less uncertain as to whether the parable re- 
fers to the people of Israel or to their leaders, the Scribes 
and High Priests. The fact is that though there were many 
of the common people who took the side of Jesus, with or 
without hesitation, yet on the whole the leaders had Israel 
as a people with them. But for that ven T reason, although 
the historical interpretation and the comparison of other 
passages in which the metaphor of the vinejard appears 
compel us to think of Israel as a whole, yet the parable is 
aimed in the first instance and almost exclusive^ against 
the leaders. They are the builders who reject the stone ; it 
is they who are determined to keep the inheritance ; that is 
to say, to maintain their influence and supremacy, cost what 
it ma} T . When the kingdom of God is given to a new people 
of the Lord, recruited from the common herd of Israel, from 
sinners and from heathen, — then the leaders who have 
dashed themselves against this stone will pay a fearful 
penalty ! 

i See pp. 371, 372. 



392 JESUS TAKES THE AGGRESSIVE. 

We may therefore well believe that after this parable had 
been uttered the authorities endeavored to lay hold of Jesus, 
and were only restrained from instantly taking active meas- 
ures because they feared a rising of the people w r ho held 
Jesus for a prophet, or at least apprehended a violent resist- 
ance on the part of his followers. The}- were only restrained 
for the moment ! Jesus had not spoken of the murderous 
thoughts of the husbandmen without good cause. His sen- 
tence was alread} T as good as passed. 

According to the first two Gospels it was on Thursday 
evening, the twelfth of Nisan, two nights and da}-s before 
the Passover began, that a meeting of members of the San- 
hedrim was held at the house of the High Priest Caiaphas, to 
consider how best to get hold of the Nazarene and make 
away with him. It was determined, in the first place, not 
to seize him publicly, but to snatch him away in secret ; and, 
in the second place, to wait till the festival w r as over, for if 
any thing were attempted during the excitement of the feast, 
it might give rise to disturbances of which it was impossible 
to foresee the issue. This would defer all active measures for 
a full week ; but Jesus would probably remain in Jerusalem 
as long as that, and if he did not he could be pursued: By 
that time the strangers, including the Galilseans, would be 
gone, and most of the followers of Jesus with them. Airy 
who might still remain would be too few in number to be 
formidable, especially when once the feast was well over ; 
and as to the people of Jerusalem, they had remained 
throughout either hostile or indifferent to the Galilsean leader, 
and caused his enemies no uneasiness whatever. 

To this it must inevitably come. The parable of the hus- 
bandmen was hard upon its fulfilment. The conflict was at 
an end, — and the end was what Jesus had expected. 



JESUS AMONG FRIENDS. 393 



Chapter XXXII. 

JESUS AMONG FRIENDS. 

Luke XXI. 1-4, XVI. 1-9, 11, 12, 14; Matthew X. 41, 42, 16-23, 
XXIII. 8-12, 34-39, XXI. 18-20, XXIV. 1-3 ff., 42-51, XXV. 1-13, 
XXVI. 1, 2, 6-13.1 

HITHERTO we have seen Jesus at Jerusalem almost 
exclusively confronted with his enemies. But now 
that we have traced the progress and the close of the deci- 
sive conflict which he had to wage, we must return upon our 
steps a little to prevent or rectify what would be the great 
mistake of supposing that during the closing weeks of his life 
he had had nothing but intense^ painful encounters, had been 
exclusively busied with controversies and denunciations. We 
must think of him really as spending a great portion of his 
time amid more congenial surroundings and in happier labors, 
under the hospitable roof at Bethany, with new-made friends 
in Jerusalem itself, 2 walking at morn or even with the Twelve 
(sometimes accompanied by other faithful followers), or mov- 
ing in the larger circle of his adherents. We know, on the 
best authority, 3 that very soon after the death of Jesus a 
band of no less than five hundred persons faithfully attached 
to him were found together, probably in Galilee ; and very 
nearly all of these would certainly be at Jerusalem just now. 

We may take for granted not only that Jesus was fre- 
quently alone with his friends, but that from time to time he 
addressed himself exclusively to them, even when strangers 
were present in greater or smaller numbers. An instance of 
what I mean is furnished by the following touching scene, 
which also serves to show how carefully Jesus continued the 
moral education of his disciples to the ver} 7 last. 

Once he had gone with his friends through the outer court, 
up the fourteen steps of the higher terrace, and through the 
magnificent gate of Nicanor, to seat himself beneath the col- 
onnade. The Jewish women were not allowed to penetrate 
further than this into the sacred enclosure ; and this part of the 

i Mark xii. 41-44, ix. 41, xiii. 9-13, xi. 12-14, 20, 21, xiii. 1-4 ff., 33-37, 
xiv. 3-9; Luke x. 3, xxi. 12-19, xi. 49-51, xiii. 34, 35, xxi. 5-7 ff., xvii. 22ff., 
xii. 35-48. 

2 See p. 185. 3 1 Corinthians xv. 6. 

17* 



394 JESUS AMONG FRIENDS. 

Court of the People was therefore usually known as the Court 
of the Women, although it was frequented b} T Israelites of 
both sexes, and was sometimes even used for popular assem- 
blies. Here, too, was the treasure-house, with its thirteen 
brazen funnels shaped like trumpets, ready to receive the free- 
will or the stated offerings to God ; that is to say, the con- 
tributions in support of the various branches of the temple 
service. In this last century the temple treasure often rose 
to an enormous sum. Here Jesus, always the same keen ob- 
server, sat and watched the people dropping their contribu- 
tvons into the money-boxes. Most of the coins were copper ; 
but now and then a richer worshipper would throw in gold or 
silver, not without an air of pompons satisfaction with him- 
self. Then came a woman, thinly clad in widow's weeds, and 
timidlj^ stretched out her hand to drop two little coins into 
the box, that together made one farthing. Was she pushed 
aside to make room for others with richer offerings? Did 
Jesus trace a smile upon some face that seemed to sa} T , tu She 
need hardly have troubled herself to come here with a far- 
thing" ? At any rate, the disciples had observed her, and un- 
derstood their Master when he cried in deep emotion, " I tell 
t you, that poor widow has given more than all of them ; for 
the}- have given from their abundance, but she in her penury 
has thrown in, it may be, all that she had." 

Jesus did not simply mean that real goodness only exists 
where some self-sacrifice is involved, but above all he intended 
to enforce the pervading principle of his life and thought ; 
namely, the value of small things and of "the little ones." 
His disciples, like all of us, were led awa}- by outward ap- 
pearances and needed this lesson constantly, and now perhaps 
more than ever. 1 On another occasion he reminded them in 
the same spirit that every service done for God, though so 
small that no one notices it, is yet observed b} T Him, and 
will not want its recompense. " Whoever receives a prophet 
into his home because he is a prophet shall receive a proph- 
et's reward when the kingdom comes ; and whoever receives 
a virtuous man because he is a virtuous man shall receive a 
virtuous man's reward. And if any one gives so much as a 
cup of cold water to one of my humblest disciples because 
he is a disciple, not even he shall lose his reward." 2 

Nor did he forget to repeat his exhortations to humility 
and simplicity, 3 if we maj T judge by the following words ad- 

i See p. 342. 2 See p. 167. 

3 See p. 352. 



JESUS AMONG FRIENDS. 395 

dressed to his disciples. They appear in connection with his 
exposure of the vauity and love of honor displa} ?,d by the 
Pharisaic Scribes. 1 "Never allow people to call 3'ou Rabbi, 
for }'Ou have one teacher and you are all brothers. And call 
no one on earth your father,- for you have one Father [who 
is in heaven]. And let no one call you leaders, for you have 
one leader [the Christ] . But the greatest among you shall 
be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, 
ar. 1 whoever humbles himself shall be exalted." 

And moreover, in contemplation of the probable issue of 
the struggle, Jesus availed himself of the interval that still 
remained to prepare his followers in general, but especially 
the Twelve, for the task that awaited them when he was gone. 
With this view he diligently instructed them, and exhorted 
them to labor zealously and faithfully for the kingdom of God. 
Here we should be inclined to place many a charge to spread 
the gospel of the kingdom without fear of men ; many an 
exhortation cheerfully to endure the fiercest violence of op- 
position, which we have already given. 3 Some of his sayings 
unmistakably proclaim themselves as having been uttered at 
Jerusalem. Among these is one of undoubted authenticity, 
preserved in an early Christian work and by the ecclesiastical 
Fathers, though not to be found in the New Testament : 
"Make yourselves tried money-changers!" In Jerusalem 
Jesus had watched the money-changers at their tables, and 
had observed their knowledge of different coinages, their 
quickness, their assiduity, and their great profits. In Galilee 
he had borrowed images from the work of fishermen and 
peasants, and now he made the trade of money-changing 
illustrate the work of the kingdom of God. " Make your eyes 
as quick as theirs," he would say, "to distinguish instantly 
between the false and true ; be as rapid and unwearied in 
adapting yourselves to each one's requirements, and make 
your profits as large, — but more honorable." It was a similar 
thought that he worked out in the parable of the talents which 
we have already examined, 4 though it properly belongs to the 
period we are now considering. 

The third Gospel further puts into the mouth of Jesus 
several sayings and one elaborate story borrowed from money 
transactions, but very different in scope and purpose from 
the others, as we shall see at once. The story runs as 
follows : — 

1 See p. 385. " Compare vol. t. p. 455. 

» See pp. 190, 170 ff. 4 See pp. 165, 166. 



396 JESUS AMONG FRIENDS. 

Once there was a rich man who had an agent or steward. 
In those da} r s such a post was one of greatest trust, and con- 
ferred the widest cliscretionaiy powers upon him who held it, 
for, indeed, he was almost irresponsible in the exercise of his 
office. Now this steward was accused to his patron of run- 
ning through the estate by his extravagance, upon which the 
latter summoned him and said : t; What is this that I hear of 
you? Make up } T our books, for } r ou must quit m} r service." 
The man was at his wits' end. In a few da} T s he would have 
given up his books, and would be turned penniless into the 
world. "What must I do," he thought to himself, "when 
dismissed from nry master's service? I car not work in the 
fields, and shame forbids me to beg by the road-side." A 
sudden thought occurred to him. "I know what to do! 
When I am dismissed there will be houses enough open to 
me ! " He summoned his master's debtors, one b} T one, with- 
out loss of time. The first who came rented an olive-yard 
for which he was in arrears. " How much do } T ou owe us? " 
asked the agent. "A hundred casks of oil," he answered 
timidly. " Fifty will do," replied the agent ; " here is your 
acknowledgment of the debt. Sit down and change the figure 
to fifty ; but make haste ! " Then came the second, a tenant 
farmer, who had not paid his rent for the current year. 
"Well, and what do you owe us?" he said, as he searched 
among his papers for the memorandum of the debt. "A 
hundred sacks of wheat," he answered gioomilj'. " I will let 
you off twenty. There, take the memorandum back and fill 
it in for eigMy." And so he went on. The debtors who had 
come with such heavy hearts had nearly equal sums remitted 
to them in eveiy case ; and the agent, without exceeding the 
limits of the powers he still possessed, and without rendering 
himself liable to an}^ legal proceedings, had earned the hearty 
gratitude of all the tenants. Even his patron, though his own 
interests had been sacrificed, could not help admiring the 
shrewdness with which his steward, at the last moment, had 
secured support and protection at the hands of those whom 
he had laid under such great obligations. 

"For the children of this world," continues the narrator, 
as he goes on to the application of the stoiy , ' ' are wiser and 
more sensible in their dealings with each other than the chil- 
dren of fight, and might well serve as models of foresight and 
prudence to them. You, too, should make friends by means 
of that evil Mammon, that lucre to which so much unright- 
eousness adheres, that when you have lost it the friends it 



JESUS AMONG FRIENDS. 397 

has made } r ou may take you into the dwellings of the kingdom 
of God. If you have not dealt faithfully with such pitiful 
wealth as that, who would ever entrust 3^011 with the true 
wealth, the highest blessing? And if you have not dealt 
faithfully with that which can never really be } r ours, who 
would entrust you with 3-our own true inheritance?" 

We see at once that it is not Jesus who speaks, but the 
man whose hand we have so often recognized before in the 
third Gospel, — the man who considers poverty a glory and 
a merit, and declares that earthly wealth which is not ours, 
but belongs to Mammon, the god of wealth or the god of the 
present age. is good for nothing whatever but to be given 
away in alms. If so used it brings its owner, or rather its 
administrator, to the kingdom of Heaven ; otherwise to 
Gehenna. We ma} T further note that the writer, who puts 
this doctrine into the mouth of Jesus, takes the opportunity 
of sajing that the Pharisees were covetous, though this was 
far from being their specially besetting sin. We shall pres- 
ently meet with a very different picture of a steward in the 
Gospels, — in this case, perhaps, authentic. 

" Be faithful in your calling ! " Such was the exhortation 
which constantly recurred in the Master's conversations with 
his friends ; but he did not conceal the difficulties that awaited 
them, and, when speaking of the work henceforth committed 
to them, he represented the future as any thing but bright 
with promise. "I am sending 3 r ou out like sheep in the 
midst of wolves. Be as cautious as serpents and as harmless 
as doves ! Beware of men, for the3' will drag you before the 
judgment seats, and beat 3'ou with rods in their S3 T nagogues. 1 
But when they give 3 T ou up to justice take no thought before- 
hand as to how or what to speak in your defence ; for what 
3 r ou are to sa3 r will be given 3^011 at the time, for it is not you 
that speak, but the spirit of 3 T our Father that speaks in you. 
Brother shall give up brother to death, and father child ; and 
children shall rise up against their parents to compass their 
death. And you shall be hated 03- every one, because you 
are my disciples ; but those who endure to the end shall attain 
to the kingdom of God. So, when 3^ou are driven out of one 
city take refuge in another ; for verity 3'ou will not have gone 
through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man shall 
come." 

This final word of encouragement is open to the grav- 
est suspicion, at any rate in its present form ; nor can Jesus 
1 See p. 198; and compare Matthew xxiv. 9, 13. 



398 JESUS AMONG F&IENDS. 

have used the language attributed to him by Luke : "I my- 
self will give 3 t ou such courage and wisdom that none of your 
adversaries will have power to resist or contradict you." And 
finally, the addition made by all the Evangelists, " and } r ou 
shall also be brought before governors and kings for my sake, 
as a witness to them and to the heathen," is obviously bor- 
rowed from the actual event. 1 

But enough ! After deducting all the later additions, we 
have still the means of forming some idea of the line adopted 
by Jesus during the closing weeks of his life in preparing his 
faithful disciples for their glorious but arduous task. 

It seems that Jesus gradually drew back more and more 
into the circle of his friends. At any rate it is open to doubt 
whether he continued his public teaching in Jerusalem to the 
ver} T last. Perhaps the authorities of the temple had taken 
steps to exclude him from the sacred precincts, and he kept 
out of their way to avoid tumultuous and violent collisions 
But all this is simpfy a conjecture, and only rests upon the 
fact that we find him. one or two days before the Passover 
apparently, at a meal in Bethany, and on the Thursday morn- 
ing, when the festival was to begin at even, he sent two of 
his disciples to the city in advance, and himself, perhaps, 
remained with his host till the afternoon. 

It has indeed been imagined that Jesus expressly bade 
farewell to Jerusalem in a saying still preserved. For at the 
close of the attack upon the Scribes and Pharisees occurs a 
passage which we shall presently give in full, concluding with 
the words addressed to the citizens of Jerusalem: "I tell 
you, you shall see me no more till the time when you shall 
sa}^, ' Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord ! ' " 
From this enigmatical saying it has even been inferred that 
Jesus thought of returning to Galilee. But the fact is that 
the whole passage which these words conclude seems to be a 
citation from some lost work of the Jewish-Christian school. 
There are other sayings attributed to Jesus in the Gospels 
which likewise point to the existence of such a work, com- 
posed a little before the fall of the Jewish state. Perhaps it 
resembled the contemporary book of Revelation, and at any 
rate took the form of an oracle containing a description of 
the approaching end of the world and establishment of the 
kingdom of God. 2 "We shall presently return 3 to the evi- 

1 Compare Acts xxiii. 33, xxv. 6, 23. 

55 See pp 22, 24. s See p. 402. 



JESUS AMONG FRIENDS. 399 

denee that such a book existed and was used by the Evan 
gelists ; but meanwhile we will give the whole passage of 
t\ hicb. we are now speaking. Though the words are put into 
the mouth of Jesus in the Gospels, 3-et in the original work 
they must have been uttered by the ''Wisdom of God," 1 
which is equivalent to his Spirit or Revelation. 

"Behold! I send prophets and sages and Scribes to } T ou ; 
and some of them you will sla} T and crucify, and others 3'ou 
will scourge in 3-our synagogues and pursue from city to cit}~ ; 
that upon you may come [that is, that 3-011 ma3 T be held 
responsible for] all the righteous blood that has been shed 
upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood 
of Zechariah the son of Berechiah, whom you slew between 
the temple and the altar. Verily I sa3~ unto 3^011 it shall all 
come upon this generation ! 

41 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem ! thou who slay est the prophets 
and stonest those that are sent unto thee ! how often would I 
have gathered th3 7 children together as a hen gathers her 
chickens under her wings, and ye would not ! But now I 
withdraw ury protecting hand from your house, and 3'ou shall 
no more see me till the time when 30U shall sa3', ' Blessed is 
he who comes in the name of the Lord ! ' " 

Here Wisdom, or more plainly God himself, complains of 
the chosen people. For a short time He will surrender Israel 
to punishment, till the kingdom of God shall come in its 
glory. Now the date of these verses ma3 T be gathered with 
great precision from the mention of Zechariah's murder as 
the latest deed of its kind. Of course this man is not the 
son of Jehoiada who was stoned more than eight and a half 
centuries before, 2 but a certain man whom Josephus speaks 
of as a rich and noble citizen, whose hatred of all evil and 
love of freedom exposed him to the enmit3 r of the zealots. 
The3 T endeavored to compass his death ; and when, in spite 
of their threats, the court which the3' had instituted to con- 
demn him pronounced him , innocent, the3' slew him in the 
temple and then hurled him down the precipice. It is a 
strange anachronism to make Jesus mention this murder ; 
but in other respects it was a fine conception to la3 r upon his 
lips this profoundly touching expression of disappointment 
at Israel's impenitence. 

The following picture was drawn with a similar intention : 

Early in the morning, as Jesus was going to the city from 
Bethan3 T with his friends, be felt hungry ; and seeing a fig-tree 

1 See p. 252, and compare Luke xi. 49. 2 See vol. iL p. 175. 



400 JESUS AMONG FRIENDS. 

at some little distance, in full leaf, he went up to it to pluck 
some fruit, but found that there were only leaves upon it. 
" May never man eat fruit of you again ! " he cried, and the 
tree immediately withered, upon which the disciples said in 
amazement: , u See how the fig-tree has shrivelled up in an 
instant ! " 

We can hardly read this little story as it stands without a 
shock ; not so much because of its gross impossibilhVy as be- 
cause this curse is so utterly unworthy of Jesus. The first 
two Gospels, taking the story literally, have doubtless failed 
to reproduce it faithfully. Mark, who spreads it over two 
days and makes the unfortunate remark that it was not time 
for figs yet, is especially far out. But it is easy to rediscover 
the true meaning. For in the third Gospel, which does not 
give this story, we have already heard Jesus speaking of 
Israel as the unfruitful fig-tree. 1 And here again the fig- 
tree is Israel, and the emphasis falls upon the disappointment 
of Jesus. It was not without reason that he had formed such 
lofty expectations, for the tree was covered with luxuriant 
foliage. Israel seemed so zealous for the service and the 
honor of its God, so fervid in its longing for the Messianic 
blessedness ! Alas ! it was but an empty show. The sub- 
stance, the fruit which it promised and which it ought to bear, 
was nowhere to be found. The consequences could not be 
averted. Israel had smitten itself for ever with absolute 
spiritual barrenness. 

This image, then, as a description of the final issue, is quite 
in its place at this period of the ministry of Jesus, and accu- 
rately represents the fact. The sublime attempt of Jesus had 
failed. The masses of the people lent him a ready ear ; 2 but 
their shallow attachment was worth nothing, for it did not 
win them to the kingdom. Meanwhile his position grew 
more critical from day to day, and the storm was rapidly 
approaching. Must not a deep melancholy have settled on 
him, even when among his friends, as he thought of the judg- 
ment his people was bringing down upon itself? Doubtless 
the sigh which Luke 3 would have us think escaped him at the 
very moment of his triumphal entiy did indeed rise more than 
once a week or two later, as he crossed the western slope of 
the Mount of Olives with the Twelve and saw the city 
stretched before him. Well might he weep for her and c^, 
"Oh if thou didst but know, now that the rescuing hand is 

1 See p. 349. 3 Mark xii. 37. 

8 Luke xix.. 41-44 ; see ilso p. 357. 



JESUS AMONG FRIENDS. 401 

extended to thee ! if thou didst but know what truly makes for 
th} T salvation ! But alas ! thine eyes are blind ! " Well might 
he breathe his dark forebodings to his friends, though not 
precisel}' in the form which Luke has borrowed from the his- 
tory of the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70 a. d. " The daj^s 
shall surety come when thine enemies shall cast up a mound 
against thee, and surround thee and hem thee in upon every 
side, and destroy both thee and thy children within thee, and 
leave no stone standing upon another, because thou hast 
brought to nought God's last attempt to save thee ! " 

We also rind in all three Gospels an elaborate prediction 
which Jesus is represented as making to the Twelve or to 
four of them, and in which the heaviest sufferings are fore- 
told to Israel. Luke, who gives two of these discourses, goes 
so far in the second of them as expressly to describe the siege 
and capture of the City of the Temple, which is another in- 
stance of histoiy in the form of prophec\ r . But even in its 
earlier shape the discourse can hardly be from Jesus. It de- 
scribes the end of the present world with all the fearful events 
which will precede it, the return of Jesus from heaven with 
terrific signs in the sky, and the great Messianic judgment. 
Its different parts are not only disconnected, but contradic- 
torv. For instance, we are told on the one hand that the 
return of the Son of Man, and the establishment of the king- 
dom of God, will most assuredly take place before the gener- 
ation of the contemporaries of Jesus has passed awa} T ; and, 
on the other hand, that these events must not be looked for 
too soon ; that the gospel must first be preached to eveiy na- 
tion throughout the world, and that no one, not even the Son 
of Man, has any knowledge when the} 7 will come to pass. 
Moreover, the discourse displays an unmistakable resemblance 
to the various productions of that peculiar branch of Jewish 
literature represented in the Bible b} T Daniel and Revelation, 
and outside the canon by various other writings ; x and, finally, 
it appears on careful inspection that the original author, 
while acquainted with the events that immediately preceded 
the fall of the Jewish people, had no knowledge of the fall 
itself. Much the same may be said of the book of Revela- 
tion. All this makes it tolerably certain that the discourse 
we are dealing with consists of loose fragments of a more ex- 
tensive work written a j<ear or two before the destruction of 
•Jerusalem, in view of the circumstances of the time, to en- 

l Compare vol. ii. pp. 562 ff. ; and pp. 289, 331 ff. 



402 JESUS AMONG FRIENDS. 

courage the Christians with the assurance that the end of the 
world and the return of Jesus were close at hand. This is 
the work to which we have already referred, as the probable 
source from which the lamentation over Jerusalem's impeni- 
tence was drawn. 1 

If we take the discourse as it stands, we cannot admit that 
any part of it was really uttered by Jesus, except certain open- 
ing words that form a kind of exordium, and perhaps a single 
metaphor at the close. These presumably genuine sayings we 
will therefore give. One day, immediately before the Passover 
we are told, Jesus left the temple and the city, followed the 
winding path this side the Kidron, and ascended the Mount of 
Olives on the other. Here one of the Twelve came up to 
him, and spoke in a strain of enthusiastic admiration of the 
dazzling splendor, the colossal proportions, and the immova- 
ble foundations of the temple. " Are you lost in admiration 
of it all?" he answered. " I tell } T ou truly there shall not be 
one stone left upon another ; but all shall be overthrown ! " 
He meant that however warmly the heart of every true 
Israelite might beat for the sanctuaiy of his people, yet there 
would be no place for it in the kingdom of God : it would 
vanish without a trace when ail things were made new in the 
immediate future. Jesus pursued his way, and a few minutes 
brought him to the summit of the Mount of Olives, where he 
sat down. There la}- the city at his feet, bathed in the gold 
and purple of the setting sun. Again his friends drew near, 
according to Mark the two pairs of brothers only ; Simon and 
Andrew, James and John. " Tell us when this shall come to 
pass," they said, " and what will be the signs of the approach- 
ing end of this world." Jesus may have answered by a stir- 
ring exhortation to unwearied toil, since neither the} T nor any 
man could know when the last day would break. " Who is 
the faithful and discreet steward," he continued, " whom his 
master has set over all his fellow-servants to give each his food 
at the proper season ? Happy the servant whom his master, 
when he comes, shall find performing this task that he has set 
him. I tell 3-011, truly, that he will give him charge of all his 
possessions. But if the wicked servant says to himself: 
4 My master is long absent,' and begins to beat his fellow- 
slaves, while he himself feasts and carouses with the drunk- 
ards, his master shall return on a day when he looks not for 
him and at an hour that he does not know, and shall cut him 
to pieces and rank him among the faithless." 

i See p. 398. 



JESUS AMONG FRIENDS. 403 

In connection with this warning, Luke makes Jesus say : 1 
" The slave that knew his master's will, and yet got nothing 
ready and did not do his will, shall be beaten with many 
stripes ; but the slave that transgressed his will without 
knowing it shall be beaten with but few stripes. From him 
to whom much has been given much will be required ; and 
from him to whom much was entrusted more will be de- 
manded." Or again, with an analogous metaphor: 2 "Let 
your loins be ever girt and your lamps burning ; and hold 
yourselves like men that wait for their master to return from 
the wedding, ready to open the door to him whenever he 
comes and knocks. Happy are the servants whom their 
master comes and still finds watching ! I tell you truly, he 
will gird up his own loins, and make them lie down and will 
wait upon them ; and if it is the second or the third watch 
of the night when he comes, and if he finds them still at 
their post, blessed are they ! For, if the householder had 
known at what hour the thief would come, he would have 
watched and would not have suffered him to break into his 
house. Be you ready likewise ! For the Son of Man will 
come at an hour when least j t ou look for him." 

How much or how little of all this should be ascribed to 
Jesus himself it is impossible to determine. The saying, 
" Let your loins be ever girt and your lamps burning," — that 
is to sa}', " Be ever watchful and alert," — bears every mark 
of authenticitj'. In the first Gospel it is elaborated into the 
following parable : — 

Once there was a wedding ; and in the evening ten of the 
bride's companions went out from their houses, in festive 
attire and with brightly burning lamps in their hands, to meet 
the bridegroom. He would come, with his companions, by 
torchlight and with music ; and the girls went out some way 
to meet him, and to escort him with due ceremony to the 
house of the bride, where all would join in the brilliant festi- 
val. Now five of the girls remembered that there might be a 
long time to wait, so they filled their flasks with oil and took 
them with them ; but the other five were so foolish as never 
to think about it. Now it so happened that the bridegroom 
and his train were long in coming ; and as they waited, hour 
after hour, all the ten bridesmaids grew drowsy and dropped 
asleep. It was not till midnight that they were roused. In 
the distance they heard a choral song sung in alternate 
verses, "The bridegroom comes! The bridegroom comes! 

i Luke xii. 47, 48. 2 Luke xii. 35-40. 



404 JESUS AMONG FRIENDS. 

Arise, and go to meet hirn ! " As the sound came nearer and 
nearer, the girls sprang up and began to trim their lamps, 
which were still just smoking and nickering. The five pru- 
dent ones soon trimmed their lamps and saw them burning 
with a clear, bright flame once more ; but their companions 
were half distracted, for they could not for shame join the 
bridal procession without their lights. "Give us some of 
your oil," they cried in despair to the others, " for our lamps 
are going out ! " But this was impossible, for none of them 
had brought any more than the}' required for themselves ; so 
the others answered, " There would not be enough for all of 
us. Run back to the first shop that you can find and buy 
some for yourselves." The foolish girls now saw that there 
was not a moment to be lost, and hurried off as their friends 
had advised them. But meanwhile the bridegroom and his es- 
cort came, and the five prudent maidens who were ready joined 
him, and w^re soon at the bridal house. They entered, and 
the door was shut. It was not long before the others came 
— too late. Their lamps burned clear, and the}' knocked at 
the door and cried, "Lord, Lord, open to us!" But he 
answered, " I know not who you are." " Watch, therefore, 
for you know neither the da}' nor the hour." 

This story teaches the beautiful and universal lesson that 
fitful energy in a good cause and the best of momentary 
intentions do not suffice to bring us to our goal ; and that, if 
we are to hold our own in the press of life around us, we must 
gather up a treasure of faith and knowledge, and possess a 
fund of moral and religious life within ourselves from which 
as it were we can refresh at any moment our flagging earnest- 
ness and love, and renew our self-consecration to the ideal 
life. But, as we have it, the parable points with unmistakable 
distinctness to the circumstances of the apostolical community, 
when the return of Jesus was delayed beyond all expectation, 
so that the dangers of worldliness became more and more 
threatening, and the most earnest warnings were needed 
against them. 1 The parable accordingly cannot be from 
Jesus. The bridegroom is no other than the Christ, who will 
come after long delay to his bride, — the community on the 
earth. So too in the conception of the Evangelist, 2 but not 
of course in the mouth of Jesus himself, 3 the master who goes 
abroad in the parable of the talents (which follows directly 
after that of the ten virgins) is the Christ who has left the 

1 See, for instance, Romans xiii. 11 ff. 2 Compare p. 358. 

» See pp. 389, 390. 



JESUS AMONG FRIENDS. 405 

earth for heaven, to return after a while. Finally Matthew, 
who gives these pictures of the future in far greater fulness 
than the other Evangelists, concludes them with a descrip- 
tion of the last judgment, which we have taken an earlier 
opportunity of giving. 1 

It was but natural that during the oioora of these last re- 
maining clays the thoughts of Jesus, when among his friends, 
should have constantly wandered into the future and dwelt 
upon the judgment hanging over his nation, and the establish- 
ment of the kingdom of God after the short delay caused by 
Israel's hardness of heart. And it is equally natural that his 
warnings and his glances into the future should have been 
gradually transformed and elaborated as they passed from 
mouth to mouth. But, however much uncertaint}' this latter 
consideration ma}' cause, one thing at least appears to rise 
above all reasonable doubt ; namely, that, in spite of the 
gloomiest forebodings as to the fate of the great majority of 
his people, Jesus never for a moment lost faith in his own 
mission or the speedy triumph of his cause, — never ceased 
to expect the speed}' coming of the kingdom of heaven, in 
which all mere external worship would be done away, and 
the crushing yoke of the letter would be broken.' 2 

Meanwhile he saw the crisis of his own fate drawing near 
with rapid strides. The first Gospel represents him, after 
giving expression to his expectations and uttering his threats 
in the series of discourses and parables just considered, as 
saying to his friends, " You know that in two days the Pass- 
over begins, and the Son of Man is given up to death," — or 
rather, as the words now stand, " to be crucified." If Jesus 
really said this, he did not mean to predict the exact moment 
of his death, but to emphasize the mournful contrast between 
the joyous festival to which all Israel looked forward and the 
bitter death that awaited him. 

The evening of that same day, or the one that followed, 
showed how completely he was filled with thoughts of death. 
His host, Simon, had arranged a social meal in his honor , 
and, before it was over, a woman entered with an alabaster 
flask full of the costliest ointment in her hand. She stood 
behind Jesus, snapped the long, thin neck of the vase, and 
poured the contents over his head, filling the chamber with 
the glorious perfume. Her meaning was not doubtful. In 
*.he presence of the Twelve and all the other guests she 
1 See pp. 167, 168. 2 Compare Acts vi. 14. 



406 JESUS AMONG FRIENDS. 

anointed Jesus king of Israel ! It was an act of homage 
rendered in the enthusiasm of her faith to the future Messiah, 
as if to compensate for the delay in his recognition by the 
people ; but at the same time it was an appeal to him no 
longer to defer the public assumption of his office. Little 
did the impatient disciple perceive how matters really stood ! 
We may well believe that however acceptable to Jesus such 
a tribute of honor at such a moment must have been, yet a 
shadow crossed his face as he thought how widely different 
his fate would really be ! 

Meanwhile the woman's deed was far from meeting with 
the approval of the disciples. Were they angry with her for 
seeking thus to anticipate them and all the others ? Or did 
the} 7 think she ought to have rendered this solemn homage 
publicly in Jerusalem in the presence of all the people, in- 
stead of at this quiet, friendly meeting? At any rate, they 
were decidedly put out, and some one muttered half aloud, 
' ' What waste ! The ointment might have been sold for as 
much as three hundred denarii, and the money given to the 
poor ! " and instead of the instantaneous and passionate as- 
sent she had expected her action to awake, the woman only 
met with sullen or resentful glances. As soon as Jesus no- 
ticed this he began to defend her. "Why do you treat the 
woman thus? She has done a good deed to me. For you 
always have the poor with you, and can do good to them 
whenever you will ; but 3011 will not always have me with 
you. She has done what she could. In pouring this oint- 
ment on my bod}' she has anointed me already for my 
burial." 

The importance which the early Christians attached to this 
scene at the close of the Master's life appears from the words 
that are put into his mouth : "I tell you truly that wherever 
this Gospel [that is to say, the history of his life, or the 
writing itself that embodied it] , — wherever this Gospel shall 
be preached in all the world, this woman's noble deed shall 
be recorded in her praise." She deserves no less, for her 
deed brought comfort to Jesus in an hour of deepest suffering, 
and we ma} 7 well be surprised that her name has perished. 

As for us, we rejoice to find in the Master's condemnation 
of the judgment and behavior of the disciples a vigorous pro- 
test against that narrow, matter-of-fact conception of life, — 
too common still, — which always looks to the immediate 
utility of every thing as the first or only test of its value, 
and condemns as sinful and wretched all those sweet super- 



THE LAST EVENING. 407 

fluities and adornments of which, thank God ! our earth and 
our life upon it are so full. Not only the useful, but the 
beautiful as well, and all the utterances of a beautiful soul, 
have a right of existence on their own account. 

From a historical point of view the story is valuable as 
Illustrating the tone of feeling among the disciples : while 
some of them longed impatiently for their Master to proceed 
to action, the}' were all of them more or less completely blind 
to what was immediately before them. But we are most im- 
pressed by the deep feeling of the words of Jesus, " She has 
embalmed my body for the grave." The perfume of the 
ointment called up the reflection, "Corpses are anointed 
so ! " and the next moment Jesus thought with a shudder, 
" Soon I shall be a corpse myself." Under the influence of 
this idea he gave the gloomy interpretation we have seen to 
the woman's act. Of course he perfectly understood what 
she meant b} T it ; but he could only accept it as a tribute to 
the dead, — as the last honor shown to a venerated Master 
by the lavish hand of fervent love. Before long there would 
be nothing they could do for him. ; ' You will not always 
have me with you." 

His forebodings were not false! 



Chapter XXXIII. 

THE LAST EVENING. 

Mark XIV. 10-25.1 

IT was Thursday, the fourteenth of Nisan. At six o'clock 
in the evening the celebration of the Passover would 
begin. Jesus had looked forward in eager suspense to this 
day and this hour. Would he live to see it? While every 
other family or band of friends was celebrating the joyful 
festival of Israel's great deliverance, would he too, with the 
Twelve, join in the commemorative meal in the City of the 
Lord? He longed for it with all his heart, but did not con- 
ceal from himself that it was far from certain. Meanwhile 
he had made the necessary arrangements, that all might at 
least be in readiness. On such an evening Jerusalem was so 
i Matthew xxvi. 14-29 ; Luke xxii. 3-30. 



408 THE LAST EVENING. 

crowded that every available place was pressed into service, 
and it was absolutely necessary to bespeak a room at any 
rate some days beforehand. To do this safely, Jesus must 
select a friend upon whose lidelity and secrecy he could abso- 
lutely rely ; and to prevent an} r chance of his arrangements 
becoming known he did not even tell the Twelve what he had 
done. 

In the morning, therefore, they came to him at Bethan} T 
and asked him where he wished them to prepare the Pass- 
over, in order that they might make the necessary purchases 
and get every thing ready. The}' must bu} T a lamb, and 
slaughter and cook it ; and must provide the wine and un- 
leavened bread, with a dish of bitter herbs (lettuce, endive, 
parsley, cress, and radishes) and a mess of dried dates, al- 
monds, grapes, nuts, and figs prepared with vinegar and cin- 
namon. Some of these viands were intended to remind the 
consumers of the slavery in Egypt, while others had some 
long-forgotten s} T mbolical meaning in connection with the 
primitive significance of the feast. 1 Of course the disciples 
would get every thing read} T ; but the great question was 
where they were to meet. 

In answer to their inquiries on this point, Jesus commis- 
sioned two of the disciples — perhaps Peter and John — to go 
to the city to a certain man and sa} r , " The Master says, 
' The hour of my death draws near. I will keep the Pass- 
over with my disciples in your house.' " Such is the account 
in Matthew ; but the message is rather strange and inco- 
herent, and Mark and Luke give it thus : " The Master says, 
4 Where is the room in which I am to eat the Passover with 
my disciples?' Then," continues Jesus, "he will show you 
a large room upstairs, with a table and couches and all that 
is needful. Make ready for us there." The same Evan- 
gelists, however, introduce the message in the following leg- 
endary form: " Go to the city, and at the gate a man will 
meet } t ou with a jug of water on his shoulder ; follow him, 
and whatever house he enters, sa}^ to the householder, ' The 
Master,' " and so on. This cannot refer to a preconcerted 
token, which would be unnecessary, since Peter and John 
must surely have been definitely told to whom the} T were to 
go ; and if a token had been needed at all this would have 
been a very bad one, for on the morning of such a busy day 
water-carriers would be passing to and fro in every direction. 
Obviously, the Evangelists mean that Jesus had supernatural 
i See vol. i. pp. 278 ff. 



THE LAST EVENING. 409 

knowledge who would meet the disciples at the precise mo- 
ment of their entry. We need therefore pay n<, further at- 
tention to this portion of the stoiy ; for the fact appears to 
be simply that tradition has not preserved the name of the 
householder. And this is also indicated from the impersonal 
form of expression used by the first Evangelist in speaking 
of him. 

We suspect that Jesus had special reasons for even greater 
caution than usual. There was a member of the inner circle 
of his friends in whose bearing there had been a change dur- 
ing the last few days. His fellow-disciples had not noticed 
it, and perhaps were incapable of doing so ; but the quick eye 
of the Master had detected it. and it had been a painful sur- 
prise and a source of growing uneasiness to him. The disci- 
ple in question was Judas of Karioth. For some time past 
his zeal had been cooling, and a certain reserved and uneas}' 
air of hesitation had deepened during the last few hours into 
a restless and perturbed deportment, which he sought in vain 
to hide by a show of greater love and intimacy, and which 
gave the Master only too good cause for anxiety. Perhaps 
he had warned him indirectly before, or had taken him aside 
to speak with him ; but now he watched him with a mournful 
narrowness of observation that nothing could escape, and be- 
fore evening he felt almost sure that his enemies had a tool in 
the inner circle of his friends ! 

And, in truth, the evening or day before Judas had with- 
drawn in secret from Bethany and gone to Jerusalem to 
secure an audience from the ecclesiastical authorities, by the 
instrumentality of the officers of the temple-guard, or by any 
other means that he could find. When a private interview 
was granted him, he told the high priests that he was one of 
the twelve chosen disciples of the Nazarene, and was ready to 
help them in getting this dangerous leader into their power. 
It need hardly be said that they greedily caught at his invalu- 
able offer of help ; that they showered praises on the new ally 
who had come of his own accord from so unexpected a quar- 
ter, and confirmed him in the intention which they repre- 
sented as so highly meritorious and acceptable to God. It 
was only the day before that the}' had determined to wait a 
week before doing any thing, but now they might hasten the 
execution of their schemes without prejudice to the cautious 
policy they had then adopted ; for if they could seize him and 
carry out their further plans at once without any danger of 
tumult, it would be much better than leaving him at liberty 

VOL. III. 18 



410 THE LAST EVENING. 

all through the feast ; for it was impossible to tell whether he 
might not cause disturbances in the very week of Passo\er 
itself. 

So the plan was soon concerted. Judas was to watch for 
the very earliest opportunity of putting Jesus into the power 
of the magistrates, and they on their side were to reward his 
faithful zeal for the honor and service of the Lord b} T giving 
him a sum of money. 

A traitor among the friends of Jesus ! How can we help 
pausing for a moment and exclaiming, Is it possible ? 

Our authorities leave us without guidance. The account, 
which we have ventured to expand a little, is characterized in 
the original bj T pathetic brevity: "And Judas Iskariot, one 
of the Twelve, went to the high priests to betra}^ him to them. 
And when they heard it they were glad, and promised to give 
him money ; and he sought how best he might put him into 
their hands." Not an attempt at explanation. And yet what 
a terrible enigma ! 

Luke adds that Satan entered the heart of Judas ; but no one 
can call that an explanation. Matthew makes him go to the 
authorities and say, " What will 3 T ou give me to put him into 
your hands?" upon which they weigh out, or pay him, thiity 
shekels of silver (something under £i) . But it is extremely 
improbable that Judas was moved b} r simple love of gain, and 
opened the conference by attempting to strike his bargain at 
once ; and the paltry sum of thirtj" shekels, the traditional 
average price of a slave, 1 is borrowed from the prophet Zech- 
ariah, when speaking of the miserable wages offered by the 
people to their shepherd. 2 We are, therefore, left entirely to 
our own conjectures. 

Every attempt to solve the mystery must start from these 
two facts : Firstly, that Judas, like the Eleven, had joined the 
Master because he was genuinely moved by him, and had 
been selected b} T him, as one of the best and most promising 
of his disciples, to be admitted and trained in the inner circle 
of daily intercourse with him. He, too, had left all things 
for the Master's sake, — had been true to him through all 
vicissitudes ; had probably been sent out by him to preach ; 3 
had reverenced him as the Messiah that was to be ; and had 
seen a glorious future opened through him to himself and his 

» Exodus xxi. 32. 

2 Zechariah xi. 12, 13; see vol. ii. pp. 238, 239; and Matthew xxvii. 7- 10. 

« See pp. 181, 182. 



THE LAST EVENING. 411 

fellow-disciples. And, secondly, he was thoroughly imbued, 
in common again with his fellow-disciples, with the worldly 
expectations of his people ; and therefore the Master's con- 
stant predictions of suffering so far as he took them in, and 
the failure of his decisive efforts at Jerusalem which became 
clearer and clearer each day, were a bitter disappointment — ■ 
nay, a grievance, an enigma, an offence — to him. 

It seems highly probable, therefore, that he took his fatal 
step because he considered that he had been grossly deceived 
in Jesus. The event, he thought, had shown that Jesus was 
not the Messiah he had given himself out to be. And with 
his Master's promises all his own prospects had vanished in 
smoke. And what was he to think of Jesus himself after 
all these futile pretensions? Perhaps the distinctness with 
which the Master had announced his death as close at hand, 
at that supper at Bethany, 1 gave Judas the last impulse. But 
wiry he especially deserted his Master and even went over to 
his enemies, while all the rest were faithful, it is impossible to 
say. One might perhaps suppose that, as a Judsean, he was 
more susceptible of the influence and amenable to the author- 
hVy of the priests than his Galilsean fellow-disciples were ; and 
that when once he was thrown out of harmony with Jesus his 
reverence for the high priests reasserted itself, and induced 
him to look upon his Master as a false prophet whom it was 
his duty to hand over to the authorities. As regards the 
factor contributed by his own individual character, we may 
perhaps assume that he was of a phlegmatic and eminently 
practical disposition, and that his "plain common sense" 
made him feel less enthusiasm for the Master than the others 
did ; made him realize more full}' the unfavorable turn that 
things had taken, and determine — after long hesitation and 
long deliberation perhaps — to change sides before the worst 
should come ! Finally, despair of finding a better solution 
has sometimes suggested the groundless supposition, intended 
to lighten the guilt and explain the conduct of the traitor, 
that a main or subsidiary motive, or at any rate a palliative 
to his own conscience, was the idea that by putting an end to 
the Master's indecision and procrastination, and b} 7 forcing 
on the cusis, he would really lay him under an obligation 
should he turn out in truth to be the Messiah or monarch ; for 
by precipitating the collision with the authorities, he would 
compel him to declare himself openly, to set a great popular 
movement on foot at the Passover, to ascend the throne, and 
establish the kingdom of God. 

1 See pp. 40G, 407. 



412 THE LAST EVENING. 

That any one can seriously put forward such a conjecture 
as this is the best proof of our helpless ignorance. 

The two disciples had fulfilled their task. They had found 
every thing read}' in the house of the unnamed friend, and 
had made the necessaiy provisions, including the preparation 
of the lamb whicl was to be the principal dish. 1 About two 
o'clock in the afternoon the trumpets of the Levites gave the 
signal, and the Jews, bearing the lambs on their shoulders, 
approached the court of the temple, which was adorned with 
varied tapestries for the occasion. Then, between the hours 
of three and five, the people themselves slaughtered the lambs, 
which had previously been examined by the priests, while the 
trumpets sounded and the choirs sang, and the priests, in two 
long rows, received the blood in gold and silver vessels, 
passed it on from one to the other, and poured it out at the 
foot of the altar. Then the animals were skinned, — still in 
the temple, — their kidneys, fat, and liver left before the 
altar, and the rest wrapped up in the fleece and carried home 
to be roasted read} T for the feast to begin after sunset. We 
can fancy what a bustling scene the mount of the temple 
would present ! Josephus tells us that in the } T ear 66 a. d. no 
less than 256,500 lambs were slaughtered; and even if we 
allow for great exaggeration, and assume, say, a fifth of that 
number as the average, still the slaughter and preparation of 
the animals would cause an indescribable commotion. 

In the evening Jesus came with his disciples and approached 
the house where the cheerfully-lighted hall awaited him. 
There they took off' their sandals, washed their hands and 
feet, and \slj down on the couches. The course of the festivi- 
ties prescribed by tradition was something as follows : First 
of all a goblet was filled, generally with three parts of wine 
to one of water, and was passed round after the head of the 
family had uttered a short thanksgiving both for the wine 
(" Blessed art thou, O Lord our God ! thou king of the earth 
who hast made the fruit of the vine ! ") and for the feast day. 
After this the partakers divided the bitter herbs and ate 
some of them. Then they served the biscuit of unleavened 
bread baked in flat, round cakes about half an inch thick, to- 
gether with the mess of fruit and the roasted flesh of the Pas- 
chal lamb. The head of the family took one of the biscuit, 
broke it up with the blessing, " Praised be He who makes 
the bread come forth out of the earth ! " and handed the pieces 
i See vol. i. pp. 277, 278. 



THE LAST EVENING. 413 

to those present, who ate them together with some of the 
herbs dipped in the fruit. While the second cup of wine was 
being prepared, the significance of the feast was expounded, 
and Psalms cxiii. and cxiv. (the beginning of the Hallel) 
were sung, 1 after which the cup went round. Then the head 
of the family washed his hands again and ate the first piece 
of the lamb, as he would presently eat the last ; upon which 
the regular meal began, and was passed in cheerful conversa- 
tion, all eating to satiety. The meal was closed with a third 
cup of wine, called the cup "of the blessing;" and, as a 
fourth cup went round, the remainder of the song of praise 
(Psalms cxv.-cxviii.) was sung, and the feast concluded. A 
fifth cup however was not prohibited. We may suppose that 
these regulations were in the main observed in that uppei 
chamber to which we have transported ourselves in imagina- 
tion, and where Jesus took the place of the head of the 
family. 

But in one respect this circle of friends formed a sad 
exception to the general rule. The Paschal supper was pre- 
eminently a time of rejoicing. But here there was a cloud 
upon the feast. The first words that Jesus uttered as he 
reclined upon the couch, though they testified to a certain 
sense of joy, had yet a mournful ring : " How have I longed 
to eat this Passover with you [before I suffer] , for I shall not 
eat it again till it be the true feast of redemption in the 
kingdom of God." But it was not only the thought of the 
approaching severance that weighed upon his heart, — it was 
far more the sense of distrust which he had never felt before 
when in the midst of his friends. 

And when all the symbolical ceremonies that introduced 
the feast were over, it must have become more obvious than 
ever that Jesus was under some painful restraint. He could 
not go on with the meal ; and the dark suspicion that he 
cherished forced him at last to give it utterance. A deep sigh 
broke the strained and painful silence, and he cried : "I tell 
you, one of you here at table with me is about to give me up 
into the hands of my enemies ! " Is it possible that he hoped 
to arrive at greater certainty, to hold back the disciple who 
was in such fearful peril, and to draw a frank and penitent 
confession from him? If so, he was disappointed. The 
friends were bewildered. They could not understand it, save 
one. They knew that such a deed would be utterly impossi- 
ble to them ; and not in the least for their own satisfaction, 

i See vol i. p. 280. 



414 THE LAST EVENING. 

but simply to clear themselves from each other's suspicions, 
the}- began, first one and then another, to ask, "It is not 
I? " " Master, it is not I? " But Jesus had no intention of 
saying more. The warning would be understood by him 
whom it concerned. So he only emphasized the blackness 
of the deed : " It is one of } r ou twelve who are here dipping 
your bread in one dish with me ! The Son of Man must in- 
deed go, as it is written of him ; but woe to him by whom 
the Son of Man is betrayed ! It were well for that man had 
he never been born." 

Here the first G-ospel adds that Judas asked again, " Rabbi, 
is it I?" and that Jesus answered that it was. But this is 
incredible. If the Eleven had known that Judas was the 
traitor, they would not have quietl} T allowed him to go his 
way. It is far more probable that even the account we have 
alread}^ taken from' the Gospels represents Jesus as having 
spoken more definitely than he really did. If he did not 
announce a fact, but spoke of an urgent danger, as a solemn 
warning against desertion, the disciples may well have re- 
garded it at the time as another instance of his gloomy fore- 
bodings, while they afterwards involuntarily threw it into a 
more definite form. 

Be this as it ma} T , it was some relief to Jesus to have given 
utterance to what oppressed him. The meal went on, though 
with little sign of festive joy. After a time they spoke of 
other things, of which however we have lost all record. Luke 
indeed indicates several subjects as spoken of at this last 
meeting ; but much of what he gives us on this occasion 
finds its true place elsewhere. Such for instance is an ex- 
hortation to ministering love, rising from a dispute about 
precedence, 1 and concluded with a reference to the example 
of Jesus himself: " Who is greater, the guest or the servant? 
Surely the guest. And t yet I am among you as a servant ! " 
We can more readily believe that Jesus cast a retrospective 
glance upon all that they had gone through together, com- 
mended their unshaken fidelity, and expressly named them 
his successors now that he was on the point of leaving them : 
" You are the men who have clung to me in all my trials, and 
to you do I commit the kingdom as iny Father has committed 
■*t to me." But some suspicion is thrown even upon this say- 
ing by the words that follow it. 2 Luke also represents certain 
words as uttered at table which we shall follow Matthew and 

1 Luke xxii. 24-27. See p. 352. 
S Luke xxii. 28-30. See p. 346. 



THE LAST EVENING. 



415 



Mark in placing later, — after Jesus and his disciples had left 
the hall. 

So the meal was ended. Jesus himself was completely 
dominated by the thought that a fatal termination of the 
struggle was close at hand ; but he had again perceived how 
far he was from having really imparted his conception of the 
future to his friends. Their preconceived ideas so blinded 
them to the true state of things, that in spite of his repeated 
trainings the}* were still unprepared for the catastrophe. It 
was therefore for their sakes as well as because he felt im- 
pelled himself to give words, and if possible some yet more 
emphatic utterance, to the dark forebodings as well as the un- 
shaken hopes which filled him, that he obeyed the inspiration 
of a sudden thought, and performed a simple action which 
produced so deep an impression on his friends as to lead to 
most remarkable results. He raised his head, and there was 
something in his face which riveted the attention of his disci- 
ples. The}' followed him with their eyes as he took two cakes 
of bread, laid them before him, uttered the customary blessing, 
and broke one of them into thirteen pieces, one of which he 
ate, and placed the rest upon the other cake, which served as 
a plate, and passed it to his friends with the words, "Eat 
it. It is my body." Then he filled the cup to the brim, set 
it on the table, and, after the usual thanksgiving, raised it to 
his lips and then passed it round saying, as they all drank 
from it: " This is my blood of the covenant, that shall flow 
for the salvation of many. Of a truth I tell you that I shall 
never again drink of the fruit of the vine till the great day 
when I shall drink it new in the perfected kingdom of God ! " 

No one present could fail for a moment to comprehend his 
meaning. It was a symbolical action, after the manner of 
the prophets. We have more than once seen Jeremiah, for 
example, adopt a like method of enforcing his words by ac- 
companying them with some visible illustration. 1 " Even as 
I break this bread," Jesus meant to say, -' so shall my body 
be broken and slain ; even as this wine flows out so shall my 
blood flow. Nay, my death is so near at hand that I shall 
never drink wine again, shall never more lie down to meat, 
in this world." It is possible, however, that he spoke, as 
Matthew says, of this wine, — that is to say, the wine of the 
Passover, — and only meant that as this was the first so it 
Mas alsc the last Passover which he would live to celebrate 

i See vol. ii. pp. 374. 366, 367, et seq. 



416 THE LAST EVENING. 

with his friends. In any case, he uttered his iirm oonviction 
that he would rise again, — that he would be reunited to his 
disciples, and in the immediate future, when heaven and earth 
were made new, would taste the joy of the kingdom of God 
here upon this earth. 

Yet more. It was not enough for his friends to believe 
that salvation would come in spite of his fall, — they must 
know that his death was the very means by which it would 
be secured : his blood that would so soon be shed was the 
"blood of the covenant." We must remember in this con- 
nection that in ancient times a sacrifice was always made at 
the conclusion of a treat}'. In the blood that was shed lay 
the real significance of the ceremony. The Israelites regarded 
blood as pre-eminently sacred, for they believed it to be the 
seat and principle of life, or the very life itself, — so that when 
the blood of the victim was sprinkled upon the two parties to 
a treat}' the}' were brought into the very closest connection 
with each other as sharers in one life, pledged to inviolable 
fidelity. 1 Now, tradition declared that when Moses sealed 
the covenant between Yahweh and Israel upon Mount Sinai, 
he had said as he sprinkled the blood, " This is the Wood of 
the covenant," — that is to say, the blood by which the cove- 
nant is established.'^ It was to this that Jesus now referred 
as he adopted the expression. That covenant had never been 
carried out, for one of the parties to it had proved faithless ; 
and therefore the promise of the Lord had not been fulfilled, 
and the kingdom of God had not come. But what Moses 
had intended, he, Jesus, was to accomplish ; and that, too, 
at the moment of his death. As his blood flowed out, the 
covenant would be established, — the true and eternal cove- 
nant which had failed before, the covenant between God and 
man, between the Father and his children, the covenant of 
love, of life, of blessedness. Well might he say that his 
blood would flow for the salvation of many ! And when his 
death had brought to pass what his life had failed to accom- 
plish, — when ere long all things were glorified, — he relied 
upon returning and sharing with his dear ones the extreme 
of bliss. 

This is the simplest account of what took place, and is 
given by Mark. The first Gospel agrees with it, except that 
it makes Jesus say that his blood of the covenant was shed 
for many "for the forgiveness of sins." But this ider that 

1 Compare 1 Peter i. 2. 

2 See vol. ii. p. 266 ; Exodus xxiv. 6-8 ; Hebrews ix. 18 ff. 



THE LAST EVENING. 4 1 7 

his death would be an atoning sacrifice, as well as a sacrifice 
of the covenant, is entirely foreign to the context ; for Jesu.s 
simply declares that his sublime mission of establishing the 
covenant or the kingdom of God would be fulfilled at the very 
moment when his enemies imagined the}' were crushing him., 
and that he would triumph in his fall. We possess yet an- 
other account of this symbolical action, however, from the 
pen of an earlier authority than our Evangelists ; for Paul 
mentions it in the first " Epistle to the Corinthians," 1 and the 
version given by Luke agrees with his. This account differs 
from the other in several points of minor importance. For 
instance, Luke at airy rate makes Jesus drink no more wine 
even at that same supper, — so that he literally tasted wine for 
the last time when he uttered the memorable words ; both 
Luke and Paul imply that a considerable interval, if not the 
whole meal-time, elapsed between the breaking and distribu- 
tion of the bread, — as a symbol of his bod}' that would be 
given up for men, — and the passing round of the cup " of 
the blessing," 2 which pointed to the covenant established by 
the pouring out of his blood ; and, more in the spirit of 
Paul than that of Jesus, the}' both make the Master speak — 
not of the covenant, the only one that ever was or is, but — 
of the new covenant in contrast with the old covenant of 
Moses. 8 But the really important peculiarity of their version 
is that the}' make Jesus say, as he gives his disciples the 
bread, " Do this in remembrance of me ; " and again, as he 
passes the cup, " Do this, as often as you drink, in remem- 
brance of me." This points to an express institution initiated 
by Jesus, of which there is not a hint in Matthew or Mark. 

An institution ! — but not, as is often supposed, the institu- 
tion of the " Lord's Supper." If these words are genuine, — 
and we cannot definitely say that they are not, — they proba- 
bly convey no more than a simple request on the part of Jesus 
that when his friends met together at meals they would think 
of him, of this last meeting, and of his death. Hence arose 
the custom, not only among the Twelve but among all the 
believers, of celebrating " the meal of the Lord," 4 in com- 
memoration of his death, whenever the community assem- 
bled. We need not do more than indicate in a single word 
how this solemnity gradually degenerated in the Christian 
Church, under the influence of growing superstition, until 
the words ' ' This is my body " were taken literally, — till the 

1 Corinthians xi. 20 if. ; compare x. 16 ff. 2 1 Corinthians x. 16. 

8 Compare vol. ii. p. 385. 4 1 Corinthians xi. 20. 

18* 



418 THE LAST EVENING. 

bread, or " -wafer," and the wine were supposed to change, 
under the blessing of the priest, into the veritable bod}' and 
blood of Christ ; till the sacrifice of the " mass" had assumed 
its full proportions as the bloodless repetition of Christ's 
atoning death. 

It is at least equally probable, however, that Jesus did not 
really use these words at all. In that case, the deep impres- 
sion which his symbolical action had made upon his disciples 
that evening was itself enough to establish the usage among 
them of thinking more especially of his death as the}' broke 
the bread and passed round the cup at their brotherly meet- 
ings ; and then this usage, which they felt to be completely 
in his spirit, reacted upon the history till the words ' ' Do this 
in remembrance of me " were put into the mouth of Jesus 
himself. For we must remember that Paul himself was not 
present ; and though he is the earliest witness we have, yet 
even his account dates from twenty years after the event 
itself. The stream of tradition from which he drew may 
therefore have been troubled already. 

So much is certain, that the impression was indelible. It 
was the farewell meal of Jesus with his friends ; and when 
the event had brought home this fact to them, how vividly 
his image must have risen up before them as he reclined at 
meat with them, and visibly presented his death before their 
eyes ! 1 

And all Christendom, not wishing to fall short of the dis- 
ciples and first confessors in rendering the tribute of rev- 
erence to Jesus, has rightly held the memory of that last 
gathering sacred, — has kept that evening, and the .mage 
of that noble Friend and Brother, who stands prepared to 
offer himself up for the world, in imperishable honor ! 

1 See Luke xxiv. 30, 31. 



GETHSEMANE. 



Chapter XXXIV. 

GETHSEMANE. 

Matthew XXVI. 30-56.1 



419 



AND now, as usage required, the festive meal was ended 
(before midnight) by the chanting of the second part 
of the Hallel, during which all stood up ; and then the party 
left the hospitable roof. The}' followed the usual road out 
of the city, across the Kidron and up the Mount of Olives. 
In the street Judas succeeded in stealing away unmarked, 
unless, as is hardly probable, he had found some earlier 
opportunity of quietly withdrawing. As soon as Jesus missed 
him, he suspected that he had gone to put his unhallowed 
scheme into execution. Should he take to flight? It would 
only avail him for a moment, if at all ; and besides he was 
ahead} 7 committed to stand his ground. The attempt to 
escape would now be unwortlry of him, and the voice within 
forbade it. But, on the other hand, he must instantly pre- 
pare his followers for the worst. "When I sent you out," 
he said, " with neither purse nor wallet nor sandals, did you 
want for any thing?" 2 "Nothing," they replied at once. 
"But now," he said, "whoever has a purse or wallet let 
him take it ; and whoever has none let him sell his very 
coat and get a sword. For I tell you that that text — w He 
was reckoned among the transgressors ' 8 — must be now ful- 
filled in me; for my end is near at hand." "Master, we 
have two swords," answered the disciples — as if that would 
have helped them ! — and Jesus seeing that thej' did not un- 
derstand broke them short abruptly. 

We can by no means vouch for every word of this conver- 
sation, least of all for the citation from the Second Isaiah ; 
but in the main it seems to be authentic. It is only given in 
Luke. The other two Gospels, in their turn, put the follow- 
ing prediction upon the Master's lips : ' ' You will all disown 
me this night, for it is written, ' I will smite the shepherd, 
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered ; ' 4 but when I have 
risen again I will go before you into Galilee." Whereupon 

1 Mark xiv. 26-52; Luke xxii. 31-53. 2 gee pp. 182-184. 

3 Isaiah liii. 12. 4 Zechariah xiii. 7. 



420 GETHSEMANE. 

Peter answers: "Though every one should disown you, J 
nevef will ! " Alas ! his very confidence would make him first 
to fali ! " This very night," said Jesus, " before cock-crow, 
you will den} three times that you know me ! " " Though 1 
must die with you, yet will I never deny you ! " cried the dis- 
ciple ; and all the others joined in his protestation of invinci- 
ble fidelity, Then Jesus seeing how little Peter and the others 
knew themselves, and how they threw to the winds his exhor- 
tation to redoubled vigilance, urged it no more. According 
to the third Gospel, he clothed his warning in the following 
words: "Simon, Simon! Satan has demanded you all [as 
he once demanded Job from God], to winnow you like 
wheat [and make }'ou desert me]. But I have pra} T ed for 
you, that your faith ma}^ not fail. And do you, when once you 
have come to repentance, strengthen } T our brothers ! " Upon 
which the other answered: "Lord, I am ready to go with 
3 T ou to prison and to death ! " 

Unquestionably there is truth at the foundation of this nar- 
rative, but we cannot accept it as it stands. Jesus, we may 
well believe, expressed his fear that when he fell for a time, 
as he soon must do, his disciples' faith in him would be shaken, 
and they would even desert him ; and he warned Peter more 
especially, since he was the most impetuous, and therefore 
the most in danger of them all. But Peter would not take 
the warning. Jesus probably seized this same opportunity to 
testify his firm belief in the revival of the disciples' faith, and 
it is even possible that he advised them to retreat to Galilee. 
But when the Gospels make him definitely declare that that 
very night they will all desert him ; that Peter will deny that 
he knows him, not once only, but three times over, before the 
end of the third night-watch, that is to say before three o'clock 
in the morning ; when Mark, who takes the reference to the 
hour in a slavishly literal sense, makes him specif} r that the 
triple denial will take place ' ' before the cock has crowed 
twice ; " when all three Evangelists make him directly after- 
wards predict his resurrection quite incidentally, as if it were 
a matter of course or a thing of no importance, — then we are 
safe in concluding that the predictions are framed to corre- 
spond with the actual, or rather with the supposed, results. 

But we do not in the least require these later elaborations 
to enable us to comprehend all the depth of sadness and anx- 
iety with which the thought of his disciples' weakness must 
have inspired Jesus at this moment ; how far he was from 
cheating himself by a flattering and shallow confidence that 



GETHSEMANE. 421 

all would 3 r et go well ; and how great that faith in the power 
of truth and love must have been which enabled him to over- 
come his fear, to rest assured of the renewed allegiance of 
his disciples, and know that his toil and conflict and self- 
sacrifice could not be in vain. 

Meanwhile the compairy had reached the estate of Geth- 
semane, on their waj^ to Bethany. This place must have 
belonged to some friend of Jesus, and from its position on 
the Mount of Olives, and its name, which signifies "oil press," 
we may conclude that it was an olive-yard provided with the 
necessary offices. Here Jesus turned aside. Was he seek- 
ing a safer refuge than his usual lodging gave him ? It hardly 
seems probable. Did he intend to spend the night there in 
the open air 1 because it was so late, or because the Law pre- 
scribed the custom of remaining in the holy cit} r till the morn- 
ing after the Paschal meal? -2 This portion of the western 
slope of the hill was indeed regarded as within the precincts 
of Jerusalem, 8 but the commandment in question does not 
seem to have been strictly observed, and Jesus would in no 
case recognize its binding force. 4 It is more probable that, in 
consequence of his conversations with the disciples and the 
danger which threatened him at eveiy step, he was overcome 
Iry violent emotions which he felt he could control no longer, 
and so withdrew for a few moments to recover his equanimity 
and self-command before pursuing his way to Bethany. This 
agrees with the words he addressed to the disciples as he 
entered the garden : " Sit down here while I go in to pray." 
The presence of his disciples at the entrance would also serve 
as a precaution against surprise. 

But this time, contrary to his wont, he did not wish to be 
alone as he prayed. In his terror and oppression of heart he 
needed the companionship and support of his nearest friends, 
and he took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee with him. In 
deep dejection he entered the garden with them, and then he 
could contain himself no longer. He wrung his hands in an 
agon}' of sorrow and dismay, and then cried to his disciples 
with an appeal to their friendship : ' ' My soul is sorrowful, to 
the ver} T death ! Stay here and watch with me." So the three 
la} T down wmile he went on a few steps further, threw himself 
not only on his knees, but with his face upon the ground, 

1 Compare Matthew xxvi. 45; Mark xiv. 41. 

2 Deuteronomy xvi.' 7. 3 See p. 360. 
4 Compare pp. 215, 216. 



422 GETHSEMANE. 

and pra3'ed. All was as still as death, and the silver rays of 
the full moon played fantastically with the shadows of the 
olive-leaves. After a time Jesus found words for his prayer, 
and above his sobs the three friends heard, " Father, if it be 
possible, let this cup pass from me ! And yet not my will, 
but thine be done ! " 

Is it strange that Jesus, who had seen the threatening 
storm gathering in the distance and drawing ever nearer, 
now pra3 r ed that he might be spared from suffering and death ? 
Is it strange that he who had looked all danger steadfastly in 
the face now seemed to lose his courage at the last ? Doubt- 
less it was a grievous disappointment to Jesus himself, when 
he found that the conflict he imagined to be over had returned 
in all its fierceness, that the terror he had already vanquished 
was once more too strong for him. Yet in our e3 r es he would 
be less great, less lovable, had he gone to meet his fate im- 
passively as a man of steel, suppressing every human feeling 
without apparent effort. The more keenly he felt his lot and 
the fiercer the conflict in his own bosom, the greater was his 
triumph and the higher his claims to our reverence. And 
who so dull as not to feel that the various events of the even- 
ing must have touched him to the quick, while the verj r mid- 
night hour would heighten his feeling of oppression. Besides, 
even when he had suspected or foreseen the issue most dis- 
tinctly, it had always been to some extent uncertain ; it had 
always left a possibility of hope : and in any case it is one 
thing to see the clouds gathering more or less in the distance, 
another to know that the bolt may fall at any instant. Had 
Judas gone for men ? Were the} T drawing near or lying in 
wait for him even now? Were they approaching him that 
very moment ? He could expect no mercy at the hands of 
the authorities to whom he seemed so dangerous. He must 
prepare for the very worst. Snatched away from his work 
and from his friends in the very flower of his life ! And death 
approached him in its most ghastly shape, — as the death of a 
malefactor with all its attendant shame and horror. Was this 
the promise on which he began his work? Was it true, was 
it inevitable, that he must face this lot? Why could it not be 
otherwise ? All things were possible to God, even the con- 
version of the bitterest foes of truth into its friends. Wiry 
should not He? . . . Oh, if it could, if it might, but be that 
the kingdom of God should come without this bitter trial! 

. . Thus did he wrestle with God in pra} T er. But if the 
only escape lay through desertion of his post, he would not 



GETHSEMANE. 423 

seize it. He would obey God's holy will and not the prompt- 
ings of his own carnal nature. He would be true to the last 
to the task and mission of his life. But if it could, if it 
could ! 

What he said after the few words we have given, and how 
long he prayed, we know not. The three disciples who were 
the only witnesses had nothing to report, for the same emo- 
tions that had strained the nerves of Jesus to such insupport- 
able tension had excited his friends to a moment's effort, and 
had then left them numbed and insensate. When Jesus had 
already partially regained his self-possession and came to 
speak to them, he found them sleeping ! Even his truest 
friends could give him no sympathy, or, at any rate, not even 
the semblance of support. There was a tone of reproachful 
disappointment in the question he addressed to them, espe- 
cially to Peter, who had been so loud in his promises, but' 
now — "Asleep! Could you not watch a single hour with 
me? Be vigilant, and pray to God that } t ou be spared 
temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is 
weak." 

In these last words he uttered his own recent experience ; 
and if he felt that he himself was weak, what must he not 
have feared for these well-meaning, but alas ! so feeble, 
friends? As for himself, welcome as their support would 
have been, he no longer complained of its failing him. He 
found all that he needed in his God. Once more he with- 
drew and bent down in prayer. ' ' M3* Father, if this cup 
cannot pass awa} T without my drinking it, thy will be done ! " 
His friends heard no more, or could not remember more ; but 
these few words suffice to show how completely he sur- 
rendered his own will, how unconditionally he yielded all 
that God required. When he returned to his disciples he 
found them asleep again, and when he roused them they 
were too dazed to exchange a word with him, so completely 
had their powers collapsed. So he left them, and found his 
refuge in God. At last he had completely regained his self- 
command. Then he was ready for the worst ; and when he 
stood by his disciples once more, it was with the words of 
forgiving gentler ess, "Nay, na} r , sleep on, and have } T our 
rest ! " 

Such is the moving scene of the Master's wrestling of soul 
in Gethsemane ! The apostolic age itself did well in attach- 
ing high importance to it as the proof that the great Exem- 
plar and Perfecter, however highly exalted above his brothers, 



424 GETHSEMANE. 

had yet been like to tliem in all things, — had felt with them ; 
had known their temptations, their conflicts, their weakness, 
and had only learned complete obedience and realized his 
calling by means of suffering. 1 And let him who knows it 
not already learn from this scene that there is nothing shame- 
ful in shrinking from suffering, if we overcome our dread by 
faith. Never, perhaps, has a word been spoken upon earth 
that has unlocked such treasures of consolation and strength 
in suffering as that prayer of Jesus : " Thy will be done." 

We need not be surprised that oral tradition soon height- 
ened the coloring of this scene. Luke can already tell us 
how an angel appeared from heaven to Jesus as he prayed, 
and strengthened him ; and how he prayed so earnestly in the 
fierceness of his conflict with himself that the sweat started 
out like gouts of blood and dropped upon the ground. But 
the obvious exaggeration of this addition cannot throw an}- 
reasonable doubt upon the authenticity of the original ac- 
count, though even there the details are from the nature of 
the case uncertain. Matthew, for instance, speaks of three 
several pra} T ers, which is a round number ; whereas Luke ex- 
pressly mentions only one, and Mark two. The invincible 
drowsiness of the only witnesses throws a certain haze of 
uncertainty over all details. 

Two remarks ma} T serve to support the authenticity of the 
narrative. The praj'er of Jesus indicates that to the very 
last he believed that there was a possibility of the kingdom 
of God being founded without his falling a sacrifice himself, 
and was to some extent uncertain as to his own fate. It was 
just this alternation that caused him such agony of soul when 
the hope that had grown ever weaker, that he had almost 
completely suppressed at the Paschal supper, for a moment 
reasserted itself. Here then the Gospels, which made him 
announce his fearful end as absolutely certain weeks before, 
correct themselves. And again, this terrible antecedent con- 
flict gives us the needful explanation of the Master's mood 
and bearing during the dread hours that follow. There is a 
certain proud, immovable loftiness in him ; he suppresses 
every emotion ; not the most galling insult or the fiercest suf- 
fering can draw a sigh, much less a cry of lamentation or of 
pain, from him, until his strength forsakes him a few moments 
before his death. This lofty and unshaken self-reliance and 
reliance upon God, — this strength of will, this might of spirit, 

i Hebrews ii. 10, 17, iv. 15, v. 2, 7-10. 



GETHSEMANE. 425 

without which he could not have endured the fierce ordeal, — 
was the fruit of that hour in the olive-garden. 

"Wake up! The time has come! The Son of Man is 
already betrayed into sinners' hands ! Rise up and let us go ! 
The traitor is here ! " Such were the cries with which Jesus 
roused his friends, and, as they sprang up still only half 
awake, endeavored to apprise them of the instant danger. 
He had heard in the distance the sound of rapidly approach- 
ing footsteps ; then the eight disciples he had left at the en- 
trance rushed in with a terrified alarm upon their lips, while 
close upon their heels came an armed band of men with Judas 
at their head. As though he were still a friend, as though 
he were rejoiced to see his Master again after a few hours' 
absence, the traitor ran to him and kissed him twice upon the 
cheek, with the ciy, "Hail, Rabbi!" Or, according to an- 
other account, he shouted, "Rabbi! Rabbi!" as if he too 
would warn him of the danger. 

This kiss was a preconcerted signal, — so at least it struck 
the other disciples, for of course the conspirators themselves 
never gave an)' information. When Judas had stolen away 
from the others he had gone straight to the temple, which 
was reopened at midnight on this special evening. There he 
had asked the officer in charge to give him some men to ena- 
ble him to carry out his promise. The majority of the guards 
on service were required just then in the temple itself; but 
some of them, strengthened by dependants of the high priests, 
were placed at his disposal, and formed a sufficiently numerous 
though ill-ordered company, armed in some instances with 
swords and in others with cudgels, — for, even if the people 
about the Nazarene offered no resistance, it was impossible to 
say whether, on such a night as this, when the streets would 
never be quite empt}', force might not be needed at some 
point or other. Had Judas already been to Bethairy and 
searched in vain? Or had he come upon his eight fellow- 
disciples on his wa} T there, and perceived at once where the 
Master was? However this imry be, it seems that he had 
taken the rather superfluous precaution of fixing upon this 
veritable traitor's token of a kiss, to avoid the chance of his 
companions making any mistake in the darkness and confusion 
and letting the right man escape. 

"Friend, do 3-our work! " said Jesus sternly and briefly, 
rejecting the false kiss, as if he would say, " That is no pail 
of it! " Or, as the third Gospel paraphrases it, "Judas, is 



426 GETHSEMANE. 

it with a kiss that you betray the Son of Man ? ,5 But Judas 
had already drawn back, and the men had seized Jesus, who 
made no show of resistance, and were securing him in their 
midst. Meanwhile one of the disciples, the possessor of one 
of the two swords, made an effort to defend his Master, and 
drew. It was not Peter, for in that case his name would 
have been mentioned, and we should not have found him 
immediately afterwards in the palace of the high priest ; but 
whoever it was, he struck wildly and unskilfully, and all he 
did was to cut off a piece of the ear of one of the high priest's 
men. It was well that he was not more successful. And 
there resistance ended, either because Jesus instantly forbade 
his followers to use force, or because they themselves perceived 
that it was hopeless. 

According to the first Gospel, Jesus said : " Put back your 
sword into the sheath ! For they who seize the sword shall fall 
b} T the sword. Think you that I cannot pray to my Father, 
and He will send me more than twelve legions of angels? 
But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that so it must 
be ? " But in realhty there was not the least time or oppor- 
tunity for such an elaborate answer ; and we should hardly 
expect a quiet aphorism from the lips of Jesus at such a mo- 
ment. 1 And moreover this declaration on his part that he 
could command assistance from on high, and call out sixty 
thousand angels, — a legion of the heavenly host for each 
disciple, — agrees but ill with the prayer and the conflict that 
have gone before. Luke on the other hand begins with graphic 
touches that have quite the air of truth, and says that when 
the disciples saw what threatened the} r cried, "Master ! shall 
we strike ? " and without waiting his reply wounded the ser- 
vant ; whereupon Jesus instantly forbade all farther resistance 
with the words, " Nay, let it come ! " — that is to sa} T , " Let 
them take me prisoner." But unfortunately the same Evan- 
gelist throws suspicion upon his whole version of the affair by 
going on to say that Jesus healed the wound by touching the 
bleeding ear ; and that not only officers of the temple but 
even high priests and elders were included in the band, — all 
of which is equally incredible. 

Jesus made no resistance ; but when he saw the weapons 
in the hands of his assailants he could not refrain from sa}~- 
ing, " Have you come out to seize me with swords and cudgels 
as though I were a robber ? I have sat daily in the temple 
teaching, and you never laid hands upon me." Luke makes 
1 Compare Revelation xiii. 10. 



GETHSEMANE. 427 

him further rebuke the unworthy conduct, not of the men 
themselves but of those that sent them, by saying, " But this 
is your season. This is the power of darkness." And though 
we cannot accept the addition as authentic, it is far from in- 
appropriate. The other two Gospels have, instead of this, the 
explanatory words, " But so must the Scriptures be fulfilled ! " 
which are likewise a later addition. 

So Jesus left the garden as a prisoner, but with the bearing 
and the feeling of a conqueror ; while a settled calm was in 
his heart that contrasted strangely with the turmoil of feelings 
that had mastered him as he entered it. How different it was 
with his disciples ! Seeing that what they had looked on as 
impossible had really come to pass, and that the Master was 
defenceless in the power of his enemies, they all fled as they 
best might even before he was out of the garden. With cra- 
ven hearts the}' forsook the Master whom they could not help, 
but b} T whose side they might at least have stood, and only 
sought to save themselves. And yet they seem to have been 
in no real danger, for we shall presently find that Peter, when 
recognized as a disciple, was still left at large. 

Meanwhile we read of a young man who had risen from 
his bed and followed Jesus, with a linen cloth thrown round 
him. The people seized him, but he slipped free of the sheet 
and escaped naked. Perhaps he w r as the son of the owner or 
occupier of Gethsemane. Some have conjectured that he was 
Mark, from the fact that the circumstance is only mentioned 
by the second Evangelist. Did he threaten to bring succor 
from elsewhere, and was that why the people tried to seize 
him while they left the disciples unmolested? It may be so, 
but it is all mere guess-work. 

A few minutes afterwards the spot which in that one hour 
had witnessed that soul-moving conflict of the spirit ; had 
witnessed that quiet retirement for praj^er and that sudden 
clatter of arms ; had witnessed so much greatness and so 
much weakness and cowardice, — that spot was once again 
deserted and wrapped in deathlike stillness. Unless one man 
still lingered among the trees ; one who, though himself a 
disciple, had yet no personal danger to fear ; one whose task 
was now accomplished, and who was left at leisure to think 
what he had done, — Judas, the betrayer. 



428 BEFORE THE SANHEDRIM. 



Chapter XXXV. 

BEFORE THE SANHEDRIM. 

Matthew XXVI. 57-75. 1 

THE prisoner was now taken to the high priest's palace 
without delay. Joseph, surnamed Caiaphas, had occu- 
pied the sacred and distinguished office of high priest for 
nearly eighteen 3 T ears, which was something ver} 7 remarkable 
at that time ; and it is he, as president of the Sanhedrim, 
who seems to have been the principal instrument of the fall 
of Jesus. 2 It was at his house that the meeting had been 
held two daj^s before, at which it was decided to lay violent 
hands on Jesus ; and it was he who had now given the order 
to apprehend him. As soon as he knew that Judas of Karioth, 
with an adequate bod} T of men, was on his wa} T to seize the 
Nazarene, he had sent messengers to rouse a sufficient num- 
ber of members of the Sanhedrim and bid them instantly at- 
tend a meeting ; and at the same time he summoned certain 
people whom he knew to have been horrified b} T the things 
they had heard Jesus say, and upon whom he had therefore 
had his e} T e, in order that they might serve as witnesses at 
the trial. 

A bus} r throng was therefore pressing l-ound the high priest's 
door, and one of the disciples took advantage of the fact to 
creep inside unnoticed. It was Peter. He had fled from 
Gethsemane like the other ten ; but he was the first to 
recover himself, and very soon he began to feel that he must 
be where the Master was, though he still feared to join him 
openly. So he followed at a distance, entered the house a 
few minutes later, and passed into the court-yard, where there 
were a number of court attendants and servants passing 
to and fro, or lying upon the ground and sitting round a fire 
that they had lighted because of the night chill. The dis- 
ciple joined this latter group without saying who he was. He 
was there at hand in case he could do any thing, and at any 
rate he would learn the end. 

In consequence of the rapid and efficient measures taken 
by Caiaphas, the trial could proceed almost as soon as the 
1 Mark xiv. 53-72 ; Luke xxii. 54-71. 2 Compare p. 5. 



BEFORE THE SANHEDRIM. 429 

prisoner was brought in. But unfortunately we have not the 
means of forming am r clear idea of its progress. The chief 
cause of this is our very imperfect knowledge of Jewish crim- 
inal procedure. Jewish authorities, which are the only ones 
on which we can rely, are scarce ; and the details in the Tal- 
mud which have been supposed to refer to this special trial are 
mere worthless tales ; — for example, that the herald summoned 
witnesses to prove the innocence of the prisoner for forty 
daj's, and that when no one came forward he was stoned to 
death and then gibbeted ; or that two witnesses were bribed 
to listen to what he said to a pretended friend who was draw- 
ing utterances from him on purpose for them to hear ; and so 
forth. 

The Christian tradition was from the very beginning rather 
uncertain, for none of the friends of Jesus were present dur- 
ing the proceedings. Our authorities therefore do not agree. 
Luke says nothing of witnesses, but makes the Sanhedrim 
question and condemn Jesus in the morning ; whereas Mat- 
thew and Mark place all this, as well as the depositions of the 
witnesses, in a nocturnal sitting. Luke, however, corrects 
himself; for he agrees with the others in placing the mockeiy, 
to which Jesus was exposed, in the night, 1 and this must have 
followed the sentence. The difficult}' remains that Matthew 
and Mark likewise mention a second gathering in the morning, 
the object of which is far from clear. The same twoGospels 
fall into further inaccuracies. For instance, they sa} T that 
the whole Sanhedrim assembled, — which is impossible when 
we consider the brevity of the notice ; and had it been possible, 
the friendly disposition towards Jesus 2 of one or more of the 
members would have made it veiy unadvisable to summon 
them all, and since usage only required that one third of the 
council, or twent3'-three members, should be present, it would 
have been quite unnecessary also. Matthew and Mark fur- 
ther state that false witnesses came forward, and indeed had 
been procured ; but we see from their own account that they 
only mean witnesses hostile to Jesus, for if bribery had been 
resorted to there would have been no occasion to search so 
long for satisfactory witnesses, nor would there have been 
any lack of agreement in the evidence. 

We are therefore left in doubt as to many points ; and in- 
deed the whole course of the proceedings, as we are about 
to sketch it chiefly after Matthew and Mark, is open to legit- 
imate doubt. But when we consider who the judges were, 
i Luke xxii. 64. 2 Mark xv. 43, 



430 BEFORE THE SANHEDRIM. 

we are at any rate safe in assuming that every judicial form 
prescribed by law or usage was strictly adhered to. It may 
seem a gross irregularity that the sentence of death was pre- 
determined ; but we must remember that the judges were 
already absolutely convinced either of the guilt of Jesus in 
attacking religion, or of the dangerous significance of his 
person in connection with the Messianic commotion which he 
caused. Moreover there was crying need of haste. 

It is also highly probable that the Sadducees, who enjoyed 
an evil notoriet}' for the pitiless severity with which in dis- 
tinction from the Pharisees they executed justice, were in a 
majority on this occasion. 1 

It was perhaps two or three o'clock in the morning when 
the council opened. There sat the high priests, elders, and 
Scribes in a semicircle, upon cushions or rugs, with their legs 
crossed beneath them. Caiaphas, as president, had taken the 
seat of honor in the middle. The prisoner, who stood right 
opposite the high priest, with some officers of the court about 
him, was at once identified. Then the witnesses were heard. 
One by one, as we gather from the want of precise agreement 
in their evidence, the} 7 came forward, and, after a solemn 
warning from the president to speak nothing but the truth, 
delivered their testimony against the Nazarene. 

If they had had an}- witnesses from Galilee, the}' would 
have heard of his Sabbath-breaking, his eating with un- 
washed hands, and his negligence in the matter of fasts and 
prayers. But probably there had been no time to summon 
any but natives of Jerusalem. These witnesses could speak 
of his triumphal entiy and his cleansing of the temple ; but 
all this, though very culpable presumption in the eyes of the 
council, was no capital offence. The witnesses could speak 
of the prisoner's attacks upon the character of high officials 
held in universal honor ; but even this, however scandalous, 
was not enough. Perhaps some one could testify to the lan- 
guage he had used some time before about the dietary laws ; 
but whenever any realty important charge was brought for- 
ward, there was always a want of that verbal agreement be- 
tween the witnesses which was absolutely indispensable. At 
least two witnesses must make exactly the same statement. 
For a long time the absolute proof required, — that the prisoner 
was a seducer of the people, that is to say a false prophet or 
heretic, — was not forthcoming. 

1 Compare Acts iv. 1, 6, v. 17, and v. 34 ff. 



BEFORE THE SANHEDRIM. 431 

At last two witnesses came forward and deposed that " this 
man had said, ' I can destroy the Temple of God and raise it 
up again in three days.'" This at last was an instance of 
outrageous sacrilege, of blasphemy against the sacred abode 
of the Lord ! To help us to understand the impression such 
words would make upon these men, we may reflect how nearly 
Jeremiah lost his life in consequence of a far more innocent 
saying against the sanctuary, in an age that was far less 
slavishly attached to the temple than was that of Jesus. 1 
Besides the judges fully comprehended that in this saying the 
temple stood for the whole religion of which it was the centre, 
— the religion which the Nazarene dared to attempt to over- 
throw as unclean, that he might then restore it as modified to 
suit his own conceptions ! 

Yet even this accusation was not followed b}' his instant 
condemnation. It was not that there was any lack of agree- 
ment between the witnesses this time ; for the statement to 
that effect appears to be a misconception on the part of Mark, 
who gives the saying thus : ' ' I will destroy this temple made 
with hands and raise another not made with hands," — that 
is to sa} T , " I will destroy this imperfect human work of the 
times before the Messiah, and will establish the perfect wor- 
ship of the kingdom of heaven." The real cause of delay in 
uttering sentence appears to have been that the president was 
bound to give the prisoner the opportunity of clearing himself, 
if he could, of the charges brought against him. Accordingly 
he solemnly rose from the ground, and standing at his full 
height in the middle opposite to Jesus, he cried., " Have j t ou 
an} r answer to make against these accusations ? " But Jesus 
observed a lofty and even haughty silence, though without 
an} T kind of defiance in his mien. He thought it beneath him 
to enter with a single word upon the equally bootless and dan- 
gerous task of defending himself against men who could not 
understand him, who would be sure to turn his declarations 
against him, and who had already determined on his death. 

The high priest might now have taken the votes ; but he 
appears to have desired to extract from the prisoner himself 
a confession which would remove the last semblance of an un- 
just judgment, — a confession which would throw into fullest 
light all the charges urged against him, including his reckless 
attack upon the sacred emblem of religion, and so bring out 
their true significance and bearing, — a confession, finally, 
which would show how seriously public order and tranquillity 

1 See vol. ii. pp. 348-350. 



432 BEFORE THE SANHEDRIM. 

were threatened by the person of the Nazarene, so that no 
difficulty might arise when the Roman governor was applied 
to for the necessary confirmation of the sentence of death. 
In a word, the high priest wished to draw from Jesus some 
declaration concerning his Messianic dignity. The judges 
had not an}' doubt that he had intended to assume this dignity, 
but the}' had no legal proof of the fact. His first entry into 
Jerusalem had been accompanied with a sort of Messianic 
demonstration. It was notorious that some, or perhaps many, 
of his followers cherished the expectation of seeing him found 
the kingdom and ascend the throne of the Messiah. A refer- 
ence to the same expectation might also be traced in that 
presumptuous saying about the temple. But no one present 
had ever heard him say, in so many words, that he la?d claim 
to the title and rank of Messiah, though it was easy to infer 
as much from his bearing, and still more from his preaching, 
especially in recent days. The question was how to draw an 
unequivocal declaration from him. 

The president's adroitness was equal to the occasion. He 
knew enough of human nature to find means of forcing his 
prisoner to answer. " If you are the Messiah, tell us so ! " 
he cried. Jesus could not remain silent after that. It was 
the high priest, the representative at that moment of the whole 
people, who called upon him to give an account of his pre- 
tensions. No one had a better right to make the demand ; 
and Jesus could neither neglect it nor simply meet it with an 
unqualified affirmative. " If I told you, you would not be- 
lieve me ; and if I asked you, you would not answer me," he 
replied with quiet dignity. 1 But Caiaphas was not yet satis- 
fied, and pressed his advantage by resuming in a solemn tone, 
with the usual Jewish formula for taking an oath under an in- 
vocation of the All- seeing Witness and the Holy Judge : "In 
the presence of the living God I call upon you to say plainly 
whether you are the Messiah, the Son of G^d, or not ! " 

There was a single moment of breathless silence. All eyes 
were fixed on Jesus in suspense. Then his voice rang proud 
and clear through the hall : 4i You have said it ! And hence- 
forth you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand 
of Omnipotence, — see him coming with the clouds of 
heaven ! " 2 Then the high priest rent his clothes, as was 
customary on hearing blasphemy, exposing his naked breast, 
and cried, with bitter triumph and unmasked fury in his voice : 
' l Blasphemy ! What do we want with any further witnesses r 
1 Luke xxii, 67, 68. 2 Psalm ex. 1 ; Daniel vii. 13. 



BEFORE THE SANHEDRIM. 433 

You have heard his blasphemy upon the very spot ! What 
think you?" Then rose on every side one cry of, " He must 
die ! " 

Sentence was passed. The trial was over. The Naza- 
rene, as a blasphemer, was condemned to the punishment 
prescribed by the law for the false prophet. 1 

Upon this the meeting of the Council was dissolved or 
adjourned till the early morning, while the prisoner, now 
condemned, was put under careful guard. They were dark 
hours that succeeded ! It was reported afterwards that Jesus 
was exposed to the coarse license of the court attendants. 
Matthew, partly confirmed by Mark, declares that the mem- 
bers of the Sanhedrim themselves subjected him to the extreme 
of vulgar insult ; but this is hardly credible. The dependants 
of the high priest practised but too well the lesson given in 
the Law, which bade them not to fear or reverence a lying 
prophet. 2 One would spit in his face, while another struck 
him with his open hand ; and others again took occasion, by 
the crime for which he was condemned, to drive their cruel 
sport with him as a false prophet, : — tying a cloth across his 
eyes and then striking him with their fists and saying, " If 
you are a prophet, tell us who it was that struck 3-ou ! " 

Jesus bore it all without a complaint and without a threat. 
Though reviled, he reviled not again. He opened not his 
mouth, but was like a lamb that is led to the slaughter-house, 
like a sheep that is dumb before her shearers. 3 

Though far from certain, this account of the course of the 
trial seems to us the most probable. But the declaration of 
Jesus that, before the very e3 r es of his judges, he would im- 
mediately be glorified with heavenly splendor and return to 
earth, can hardly be genuine as it stands. 4 But neither can 
his answer to the high priest's adjuration have consisted in a 
simple affirmative ; for the contrast between his claims and 
his position, between his royal title and the sentence that was 
all but passed, would force him to give some emphatic utter- 
ance to his confidence in himself and in his dignity, as a pro- 
test against the scorn which his outward circumstances would 
seem to justify. He may have said that his judges would 
themselves behold him as the Messiah, since their condemna- 

1 Deuteronomy xiii., xviii. 19-22. 

2 Deuteronomy xviii. 22. 

8 See Isaiah 1. 6, liii. 7; 1 Peter ii. 23; vol. ii. p. 421. 
4 Compare pp. 315, 334, 335. 

VOL. III. 19 



434 BEFORE THE SANHEDRIM. 

tion was itself the pledge of the establishment of the kingdom 
of God, and that the} r would see that kingdom come to their 
own terror should they not repent. Some such short declara- 
tion he may have made ; but the words which our Gospels 
give are hardly intelligible, for we are not at libert}- to take 
them figuratively and understand them to signif}' the spread 
of Messiah's spiritual power upon earth, for instance. Such 
a conception is quite modern, and is foreign to the New Tes- 
tament, where sitting on God's right hand and coming upon 
the clouds must alwa}'s be taken literally. Now taken thus 
and introduced b} T " henceforth," this announcement of a very 
speedy return in glory would be quite natural towards the end 
of the apostolic age, when expectation was ever rising to a 
higher and a higher strain, and men exclaimed : " The Lord 
is near ! He is coming quickly ! The Judge is standing at 
the door ! " 2 But on the lips of Jesus, still on earth, still in 
life, and standing there before his judges, it is quite out of 
place. 

Of still greater interest is the question what the grounds 
of the condemnation really were. In the first place, what 
was the exact meaning of the crime of blasphemy ? On this 
point we maj T gain a satisfactory answer by considering the evi- 
dence given about " destroying the temple," the subsequent 
mockery to which Jesus was exposed as a false prophet, and 
the final charge of " seducing the people." 2 The last shade 
of doubt as to the meaning of the word ' ' blasphemy " is 
removed b}^ the account of Stephen's trial, which closely re- 
sembles that of Jesus, and in which the expression "blas- 
phemous words against Moses and against God " is explained 
to mean, " words against the temple and the Law." It fur- 
ther appears that Stephen's "blasphemy" consisted in the 
statement that when the kingdom of God was established 
Jesus would destro} 7 the temple and change the institutions 
of Moses. 3 Blasphemy, then, was teaching at variance with 
and in direct contradiction of the onry true and established 
religion. It was a similar conception to that of " heresy" in 
Christendom. It was an attack upon the infallible truth re- 
vealed by God, — an attempt to draw awa}' the people from 
the institutions of Moses and the true faith. Jesus stood 
before the Sanhedrim as the Protestants subsequently stood 
before the Inquisition. 

1 Revelation xxii. 10, 12, 20 ; James v. 8, 9, et seg. 

2 Luke xxiii. 2, 5; Matthew xxvii. 63. 
» Acts vi. 11, 18, 14. 



435 

If we go on to ask the bearing of this upon the condemn a 
fcion of Jesus for claiming to be the Messiah, it must be ad- 
mitted that the answer is not clear. For a man to consider 
and proclaim himself the future Messiah might well appeal 
to the Sadducees fanaticism and political treason ; and for 
Jesus to do so without airy thing whatever to substantiate 
his claim might brand him as a false prophet in the eyes of 
the Pharisees, — but it was no blasphemy. In the eyes of his 
enemies, however, the guilt of his desperate attempt to re- 
form the national religion was aggravated by his pretensions 
to the title of Messiah, which brought out the full danger of 
his schemes, and showed how thoroughly in earnest he was 
with his shameful plans, and how completely he considered 
himself personally qualified to carry them out. This is whj r 
Caiaphas was so anxious to have his suspicions confirmed 
upon this point, and in lack of direct testimon}^ determined 
to extract the declaration from Jesus himself. 

Finally, if called upon to say whether Jesus was justly or 
unjustly condemned, we should answer that from the point of 
the Law — that is to sa} r , on the principles of Israelitish ju- 
risprudence — he was guilty. We must remember that re- 
ligious freedom was not dreamed of in the Jewish State any 
more than it subsequently was in the States of the Church, 
for instance, as long as the chief priest of Rome had tempo- 
ral jurisdiction. Indeed, before the French Revolution there 
was hardly such a thing as religious freedom anywhere, — and 
for how short a time have Spain, Italy, and Scandinavia 
known it ! Now Jesus had most certainly come into open 
antagonism with the Jewish religion, with the essential prin- 
ciple and with many special utterances of the Law, with the 
established practice of the temple service, with the inviolable 
institutions of tradition, and with the sacred persons of the 
priests and leaders. From the Jewish point of view, accord- 
ingly, — that is to say, on the assumption of the infallible, 
absolutely divine character of the revelation, of the Scripture, 
of the Law, — Jesus deserved condign punishment. Any ec- 
clesiastical religion resting upon a revelation would have con- 
demned him to death as a blasphemer. 

The real guilt lay with the religious prejudice, the ortho- 
doxy, with which Jesus had come into collision, and with 
which at last he had closed in a struggle for life and death. 

We left Peter in the courtyard, — from which there was 
an ascer.t of several steps into the judgment-hall, — warming 



&Wb BEFORE THE SANHEDRIM. 

hi mself at the fire with some of the attendants ; but when 
the members of the Council left the palace to snatch a few 
hours' rest he was no longer there, — so that if Jesus was 
led there after his condemnation he must have found him- 
self without a single friend. What had become of his dis- 
ciple, then? 

He had not considered the danger to which he was expos- 
ing himself, or whether he was really able to face it. This 
appeared but too soon. As he stood there assuming the air 
of an indifferent spectator as best he could, he excited the 
attention of one of the female servants of Caiaphas, who 
looked hard at him, went up to him, and said, " Why! you 
are one of the followers of Jesus of Galilee ! " Perhaps it 
was only a chance impression ; perhaps she had some reason 
for it, — but in an}^ case Peter was taken quite by surprise. 
Eveiy one looked at him ; and he, utterly unnerved and fear- 
ing he might be driven out with ignomhry, or perhaps made 
a prisoner, answered, — scarcely knowing what he said, — "I 
don't know what you mean ! " 

But if he expected to escape in this way he was mistaken. 
Attention was now fixed upon him. Presently he moved 
towards the porch, — for though as yet he had come to no 
true sense of his own cowardice and faithlessness, he was 
no longer at his ease. Here the same or another girl noticed 
him, and said to the people standing b}% " He is one of that 
Kazarene's company;" and Peter, thinking it was now too 
late to retreat, repeated the denial more emphatically : u I do 
not know the man ! " Then, to carry the matter off, he be- 
gan to speak to them about other things ; but he only suc- 
ceeded in exposing himself, — for his Galilsean accent at once 
betrayed him, — and several of them turned upon him with 
the words, " Well, but you are one of them, for we can tell 
by your talk that you come from Galilee ! " Then Peter 
was driven to desperation, and said, with an oath and an 
imprecation on himself if it were not true, " I do not know 
him ! " 

The servants shrugged their shoulders in contempt, while 
Peter staggered through the passage and out of the gate, 
burning with shame and confusion. Out there in the stillness 
of night he came to himself, and knew that he had shamefully 
denied his Master ! Fool that he had been, in his reckless 
self-confidence and blindness, to fling those earnest warnings 
of his Master to the wind ! And now he had denied him 
again and yet again ! 



SENTENCE OF DEATH CONFIRMED. 43? 

He was utterly broken down. Tears of shame and deep 
repentance started to his e3'es, and he did not check their 
flow. Those bitter tears were the blessed sign that he would 
rise again from his deep fall. 

The Gospels tell us that at the third denial the cock crowed, 
and that Peter then remembered the Master's prediction. 
According to Mark the cock crowed once at the first denial 
and again at the third, which accords with the form in which 
1 he same Evangelist gives the prediction of Jesus. Luke, 
who represents Jesus as having spent the night hours under 
the charge of the guards and not before the Sanhedrim, says 
that he turned round and looked at his disciple when he had 
denied him for the third time. This pathetic touch, however, 
depends upon the special representations of the third Evan- 
gelist, on which we have said enough already. 1 The disa- 
greements of the Gospels in this matter are impossible to 
remove, but are of small importance. The fact of the denial 
itself, repeated as it naturally would be with ever-growing 
emphasis, is clear ; but we should not dare even to insist 
upon the exact number of three denials. 

Want of self-knowledge and too great confidence had 
brought the friend and disciple of Jesus to so deep a fall, 
and repentance and humility would raise him from it. 

This scene unlocks the significance to that beautiful de- 
scription of Jesus walking upon the sea and Peter coming out 
to him.' 2 



Chapter XXXVI. 

THE SENTENCE OF DEATH CONFIRMED. 

Mark XV. 1-20 a. 3 

THE first light of morning found the members of the 
Council once again assembled. In their zeal for the 
service of the Lord they had almost completely robbed them- 
selves of the sweet repose which should have followed the 
daj' of rejoicing ! But there was need of haste. The whole 
mattei must if possible be settled, and the Nazarene exe- 

1 See pp. 419, 42v, 428, 429. 2 gee pp. 268, 269. 

8 Matthew xxvii. 1, 2, ll-31a; Luke xxiii. 1-25. 



438 SENTENCE OF DEATH CONFIRMED. 

cuted fcefore the people were about, for fear his disciples 
might make some attempt to rescue him. 

Why this second meeting was necessar}' we cannot say. 
Perhaps it was needed for the observance of some form with- 
out which the sentence of death would not have legal force. 
It is possible, for instance, that the night meeting had not 
been attended by the requisite number of councillors, or that 
meetings must be called in some particular place, such as 
the temple court, or within certain hours, in order to give 
validity to their decisions. It has been supposed that the 
whole Sanhedrim * was now summoned to hear a short sum- 
mar} T of the results of the trial, and then confirm the provi- 
sional sentence passed by those who had been present, and 
so make it a formal decision. But the number of the mem- 
bers (no less than seventy) and the shortness of the notice 
make this conjecture very unlikely. The most probable sup- 
position is that the morning sitting was simply convened to 
consider the best means of carrying out the sentence. 

The Law prescribed stoning ; but to venture upon over- 
stepping their real authority and infringing upon the jurisdic- 
tion of their Roman masters by proceeding to the execution 2 
would only have been safe if they could have calculated 
with absolute certainty upon the support of the people, who 
would have had to cam- out the sentence. In this instance 
it would obviously be well to proceed in due course, and to 
request the governor to confirm the sentence of death ; in 
which case the Nazarene would perish on the cross as a 
tumult maker, — for the Council perfectly understood that in 
laying the matter before the Roman authorities it would be 
necessary to lay chief stress upon the fact that Jesus had 
proclaimed himself the Messiah, the mighty king whom the 
Jews were expecting, and was therefore a dangerous charac- 
ter. What was really the head and front of his offence, 
namely, his attack upon the Jewish religion, would hardly be 
comprehensible to the heathen governor, and would probably 
seem unimportant to him. 3 It might therefore be kept in the 
background. The charge of sedition, then, was carefully 
made out ; and if a memorial was drawn up to present to 
the governor it doubtless insisted upon the prisoner's preten- 
sions to the dignity of King of the Jews, which his own une- 
quivocal confession, together with his conduct and that of his 

1 Matthew xxvii. 1 ; Mark xv. 1. See also p. 429. 

2 See p. 5; and Acts vii. 58. 

8 See Acts xviii. 14-16, xxiii. 29. 



SENTENCE OF DEATH CONFIRMED. 439 

followers, was said to substantiate. But most likely the 
accusation was made by word of mouth. In any case it 
was followed by a request that orders might be given to 
proceed at once to the execution of the sentence passed by 
the Sanhedrim on the grounds alleged. 

Early in the morning, then, a deputation from this body 
waited upon the Roman, and took the prisoner, now bound 
and guarded, with them. They were doubtless supported 
b}~ many other members of the Council who came out of in- 
terest in the proceedings, and held themselves in readiness to 
support their petition if needful. Pontius Pilate (of whom 
we have already had reason to form a ver} r unfavorable opin- 
ion x ) had come with some troops from Csesarea to keep 
order during the feast days, as usual, and had probably quar- 
tered himself in Herod's palace, in the northwestern portion 
of the upper city. 2 This magnificent and enormous castle is 
extolled by Josephus even above the temple. With its two 
gigantic wings, its beautiful and stately colonnades, its luxu- 
rious park, its numerous outbuildings, and the well-turreted 
and lofty wall that ran all round it, — it was at once a mighty 
fortress and an entrancing pleasure house. Here Pilate, 
after the Roman custom, was accessible after sunrise to give 
audiences and pronounce judgment. In accordance with the 
established rule of publicity in the administration of justice, 
the accusation and subsequent inquiry must have been made 
in the open air, on the far-stretching terrace in front of the 
central edifice. Here the governor would order his seat of 
judgment to be placed as soon as he heard the nature of the 
business, and here his assessors would sit beside him, while 
the accusers took the seats assigned to them, and the pris- 
oner was stationed in front. Nothing is said of interpreters, 
though all the proceedings were certainly conducted in Greek. 3 
The members of the Sanhedrim would be able to understand 
and speak this language, and Jesus himself can hardly have 
been entirely ignorant of it ; for the population of the district 
from which he came was of very mixed nationality, and in- 
cluded a certain number of Greeks. 

If the councillors had flattered themselves that Pilate, who 
never seemed to think much of the life of a Jew, would grant 
their request at once, they were disappointed. He went into 
the matter. 4 When he had ascertained the prisoner's name 
he asked him whether he admitted the charge brought against 

i See pp. 96, 97, 348. 2 See Map IV. No. 4. 

3 See p. 358. 4 Compare Acta xxv. 16. 



440 SENTENCE OF DEATH CONFIRMED. 

him: "Are you the king of the Jews?" The Gospels say 
that Jesus assented ; but this appears so extraordinary as to 
be almost incredible. For, in the first place, Jesus could 
not have made the admission truthfully ; and, in the next 
place, it would have decided the whole matter, and made any 
further examination and accusation unnecessary, any further 
doubt or investigation impossible ; and, lastly, the sequel 
seems to indicate that Jesus made no reply whatever, either 
to the accusations brought against him or to the question of 
the governor. 1 

It is certain, at airy rate, that Pilate did not believe in the 
guilt of Jesus. And no wonder ; for he had never heard of 
any attempt at sedition on the part of this man, and did not 
think his appearance was that of an adventurer. As soon as 
the high priests saw that their accusation had failed to pro- 
duce its effect, they began to work it out in more detail. 
Luke gives us some examples of the line they took : ' ' We have 
discovered after careful investigation that this man is a se- 
ducer of the people, and forbids them to pay tribute to the 
Caesar, saying that he himself is the Messiah, the king." 
"He stirs up the people all through Judaea. He began in 
that turbulent land of Galilee, and now he has come here." 
And according to another edition of the third Gospel thev 
added, " He makes the women and children apostates, for b<> 
would abolish the purifications prescribed to us." "He an 
nuls the Law and the prophets." 

We can easily see to what extent the councillors were justi- 
fied, from their own point of view, in making these accusa- 
tions. 2 They certainty regarded Jesus as a destroyer of 
religion and a seducer of the people ; and that saying of his 
about the tribute, when brought into connection with his 
claims to the Messianic dignity, might well be turned against 
him, for in the kingdom of God there would of course be no 
trace of the Roman supremacy. On the other hand, it is 
unfair to draw inferences from a man's words which he him- 
self would emphatically reject ; and of course it was only the 
grossest party spirit that could dictate these malicious accu- 
sations. On this ground we can understand why Jesus still 
observed a lofty silence when the opportunity was given him 
of clearing himself. The misrepresentations of his conduct 
and his teaching were the result of obstinate blindness, and 
no attempt to remove them would avail. Silence was the 

■ Matthew xxvii. 12, 14. 

2 See pp. 375, 6, 89, 185, 280, 281, 309 f. 



SENTENCE 0E DEATH CONFIRMED. 441 

only means of preserving his dignity. But the governor, in 
very natural surprise, exclaimed : u Have you no answer? 
You hear all their accusations?" In vain. Jesus would 
not reply ; and his silence, while increasing Pilate's surprise, 
deepened his conviction of the prisoner's innocence. 

It is difficult to say what course the trial might now have 
taken' had not a sudden turn been given to it at this moment. 
It is not quite clear how it was caused. The governor, we 
are told, was in the habit of gratifying the people at the Pass- 
over by releasing a prisoner whom they selected. This cus- 
tom is entirety unknown to us except from the Gospels, and 
was probably introduced by Pilate himself, or one of his pre- 
decessors, to conciliate or appease the Jews. In any case the 
object of the custom was obviously to prevent seditions at the 
great feast of the nation's freedom. Sometimes the execution 
of rebels was deferred to the Passover, in order to serve as a 
terrible example ; while the pardon of a popular favorite, on 
the other hand, might have the effect of propitiating the peo- 
ple. Thus two opposite ways were taken to reach the same 
goal. 

Now while Pilate was sitting in judgment and the coun- 
cillors were arguing their points against Jesus, the thin 
attendance of the public at this early hour was swelled b} T a 
considerable concourse of citizens, who came from various 
quarters up the hill and through the gates of the royal for- 
tress to ask the governor to grant the usual pardon to a 
prisoner. Was this the morning fixed b} T usage ; or were 
they drawn together by a chance report that the question 
of releasing the prisoner was now being dealt with, or was 
shortly coming on? At such a season it needed little to 
collect a growing crowd. 

No doubt the high priests began to be anxious and uneasy 
when the} T saw the people streaming together. Pilate, on the 
other hand, saw a sudden chance of putting an end to the 
trial, which he hardly knew how to deal with, and releasing 
this extraordinary prisoner. He would get the people to 
demand his liberation, and then all would be settled; for he 
had clearly perceived that the Jewish authorities cherished a 
rancorous hatred against the Nazarene, but he did not sup- 
pose the people would share it. Perhaps he knew, or had 
just learned from the accusers, that this man had a following 
among the people. So the Roman rose from his seat, de- 
manded silence with a gesture of command, and said: "I 



442 SENTENCE OF DEATH CONFIRMED. 

will grant your request ! Shall I release Jesus, the King of 
the Jews ? " Then he resumed his seat to give them time to 
consider. 

Pilate had been as clums}^ as usual. His tone of contemp- 
tuous mockeiT was little calculated to win assent to his prop- 
osition. And yet he had nearly accomplished his end. But 
the councillors, maddened at the thought of losing their prey 
after all, bent all their energies to diverting the popular choice 
from Jesus, and had the presence of mind to suggest a genu- 
ine popular favorite. There happened to be a certain Jesus 
Barabbas, or Jesus son of Abbas, in prison at the time, His 
full name has only been preserved in certain manuscripts of 
the first Gospel. Elsewhere, out of a ver}- natural reverence 
for the name of Jesus, he is simply called Barabbas. Matthew 
tells us he was a celebrated prisoner ; Mark, that he had been 
concerned in a tumult that ended in bloodshed. He was 
probably a fanatical patriot, who had killed a Roman soldier 
in his zeal for the Lord. Perhaps he was to be executed that 
very day. This was the man whom the members of the San- 
hedrim suggested to the people, in order to cause a diversion 
and prevent their demanding the liberation of Jesus of Naza- 
reth. Matthew, indeed, makes the suggestion come from 
Pilate himself, who says: u Shall I release Jesus Barabbas, 
or Jesus called Christ? " But this is improbable, as it would 
only have allowed the people a choice between two men. 

But whoever first brought forward the name of Barabbas, 
and whether the people if left to themselves would have de- 
cided in favor of Jesus or not, it is certain that Pilate w T as 
quite thrown out of his calculations. Perhaps a few voices 
were raised for Jesus at first, and possibly the liberation of 
some third prisoner was demanded here and there ; but those 
who dissented from the majority were soon shouted down, and 
from every quarter of the ample court the cry resounded, 
" Barabbas ! Let us have Barabbas ! " The dependants of 
the councillors and the men of Jerusalem generally were 
doubtless loudest in the shout, for the priestly authorities had 
great influence over them. A desire to cross the wishes of 
Pilate, resentment at his haughty and contemptuous lan- 
guage, the sight of the unsuccessful prophet or Messiah, and 
partiality to the zealot, all contributed towards this wretched 
choice. 

Pilate saw that what he had regarded as a happy inspira- 
tion had turned out a blunder. But instead of at once recov- 
ering himself he persisted, with unpardonable weakness, in 



SENTENCE OF DEATH CONFIRMED. 443 

making the people judge in his place. He concealed his 
vexation and disappointment, and asked, " Then what shall 
I do with this man that 3'ou call the King of the Jews ? " He 
gave them an opening to demand his liberation also. But in 
vain. "Crucify him!" shrieked the councillors and their 
dependants ; and the multitude, determined to thwart Pilate, 
smarting under his repeated scoff, and having definitely es- 
poused the cause of the Sanhedrim, took up the murderous 
cry of " Crucify him ! " The}* were eager to show the insult- 
ing Roman that his helpless prisoner was no king of their 
choosing, whatever he might be pleased to call him ! The 
governor's anger now began to rise ; but he only made matters 
worse, and exposed his own weakness and folly yet more by 
his expostulation, " Well, but what harm has he done? " The 
stormy cry rose wilder than ever from all sides of the court, 
"Crucify him! " Then Pilate gave it up. He had bound 
his own hands, and really did not care about the matter 
enough to make a vigorous stand against the popular demand 
and risk disturbances. He saw that he must let the excited 
people have their way, ordered the release of Barabbas, and 
turned to Jesus with the few but fearful words, '■' I sentence 
you to the cross ! " 

The supreme authority had ratified the sentence of the 
Sanhedrim. 

Here let us pause to review the later additions to this nar- 
rative, preserved in Matthew and Luke. The feelings of 
early Christendom were not satisfied bj T this tradition of the 
trial before the procurator. They demanded more emphatic 
witness to the innocence of Jesus, and warmer interest on 
the part of the Roman. As the heathen world had given 
Christianity a reception which, when compared with the 
stubbornness of the Jews, might be considered favorable, 
so they felt that Pilate himself, as representing the heathen, 
must have taken a very definite stand against the Sanhedrim 
and the people on behalf of Jesus ; must have made every 
effort to rescue him, instead of displaying the comparative 
indifference that we have witnessed. This idea was after- 
wards worked out into such fictions as we find in the apocry- 
phal " Gospel of Nicodemus," where the trial is expanded and 
embellished with every manner of supernatural adjunct past 
all recognition. But all this, as foreign to our present purpose, 
we may pass bj\ 

Matthew tells us that when Pilate had given the Jews their 



444: SENTENCE OF DEATH CONFIRMED. 

choice between Jesus and Barabbas and resumed his seat, he 
received a message from his wife, whom later traditions call 
Claudia Procula, to this effect: "Take care what you do to 
that righteous man, for I have had dreadful dreams about 
him in the night ! " It was an omen, sent to warn her hus- 
band not to draw down the vengeance of the deit} T upon his 
head. We ma}' call to mind in this connection how large a 
part dreams play elsewhere in the latest additions to this 
Gospel. 1 Now when Pilate, we are told soon afterwards, saw 
that his attempt to rescue Jesus had failed, that his opposi- 
tion to the people's stormy demands was unavailing, and 
that there was imminent risk of a tumult, he attempted to 
bring the people to their senses by a visible presentment of 
his own feelings. He sent for a basin of water, and washed 
his hands before all the multitude, with the words : "I will 
have nothing to do with shedding this man's blood. I pub- 
licly renounce all share in his execution. The whole respon- 
sibility rests upon you ! " But the surging multitude, in its 
miserable blindness, did not hesitate for a moment to incur 
the appalling guilt which it failed to recognize, and shrieked, 
" His blood be upon us and our children ! " Then, at last, 
Pilate gave way. But this scrupulous anxiety to preserve a 
human life is still less in keeping with the Roman procura- 
tor's character than the adoption of the Jewish custom of 
washing the hands in token of innocence ; 2 and the impreca- 
tion that follows is evidently laid upon the lips of the people 
in view of the destruction of Jerusalem, which was regarded 
as a punishment for the murder of the Messiah. 3 

Luke goes still further in describing the heathen governor's 
favorable disposition, and in giving testimonies to the inno- 
cence of Jesus. He makes Pilate, on hearing that Jesus is a 
Galilsean, and therefore under the jurisdiction of Herod Anti- 
pas, send him to the "Petrarch himself, who was in Jerusalem 
celebrating the Passover. Herod, says the Evangelist, was 
greatly delighted, for he had long wished to see Jesus, 4 in con- 
sequence of all he had heard of him ; and now he hoped he 
would work some wonder in his presence. But Jesus did not 
so much as deign to answer any of his questions, though the 
members of the Sanhedrim, who were also there, made violent 
accusations against him. Then the careless and irreverent 
prince compensated himself for his disappointment by joining 

1 See pp. 41, 70, 71. 

2 Deuteronomy xxi. 6 ff. ; compare 2 Samuel iii. 28. 

8 Compare Matthew xxi. 41, xxii. 7. 4 See p. 372. 



SENTENCE OF DEATH CONFIRMED. 445 

his troops in mocking Jesus as a harmless fanatic, and cloth- 
ing him in a royal robe of shining white. Then he sent him 
back: to Pilate, whom he thanked for his courtesy, explaining 
at the same time that there was no pretext for charging Jesus 
with political offences. After that the hostility between the 
Roman procurator and the only surviving son of Herod gave 
place to friendship. 

Pilate, says Luke, had from the first declared to the mem- 
bers of the Sanhedrim and the people that he could find no 
guilt in the man ; and now, according to the third Gospel, he- 
summoned them again and said : " You have brought this man 
before me as a seducer of the people, but I have examined him 
in your presence and have not found him guilty of any of the 
things with which you charge him. Nor has Herod found 
him guilty, for I referred you to him ; but nothing was brought 
to light to justify" the sentence of death. I will have him 
beaten, therefore, to satisfy you, and will then release him." 
Then came the cry for the release of Barabbas rather than 
Jesus, upon which Pilate spoke again, with the undisguised 
intention of securing the release of Jesus ; and when the peo- 
ple shouted "Crucify him!" Pilate declared for the third 
time that he could find nothing worthy of death in him, and 
repeated his proposal onh* to scourge him. All in vain ! 

The conduct here ascribed to Pilate is highly improbable ; 
and so is that of Herod, who had wished to get Jesus out of 
the way-, not long before, as a dangerous character. 1 The 
statement in the Acts 2 that Herod and Pilate had conspired 
with heathen and Israelites against Jesus the holy servant of 
God is far less unlikely ; but the co-operation and subsequent 
friendship of Pilate and Herod are in any case very improba- 
ble, for these two men must alway-s have been jealous and sus- 
picious of each other, since Herod was constantly aiming at 
reuniting all the portions of his father's kingdom under his 
own sceptre. 3 Finally, the scourging which Jesus was forced 
to undergo was not intended as an independent punishment. 
It generally preceded executions, especially upon the cross ; 
and it was inflicted upon Jesus, according to the most trust- 
worthy- accounts, as the beginning of the crucifixion. Like 
the mockery to which he was also subjected, it must have fol- 
lowed directly upon the delivery of the sentence, and in the 
palace of the procurator. 

The oldest Gospels give the following account of it : The 

1 See pp. 274 f. 2 Acts iv. 27. 

3 See pp. 375, 3, 4, 348. 



446 SENTENCE OF DEATH CONFIRMED. 

executioners, in this case the soldiers, seized the prisoner and 
stripped him, fastened his hands behind his back, bound him 
to a post with his back bent forward, and scourged him with 
thongs or ropes, w^th some sharp, hard substance fixed to the 
ends. A hideous barbarity ! When this was over, it appears 
that some preparations were still needful before they could set 
out for the place of execution, and the Nazarene was, there- 
fore, kept in a guard-room or an inner court. But even here 
he had no respite. The brutalized soldiers found a pleasure 
in exposing the defenceless and tortured ' ' king " to the coarse 
license of their raillery. They called all the band together, 
and instead of giving Jesus his own clothes again, the}' threw 
a scarlet robe upon him, such as the Roman warriors and gen- 
erals wore, while from time to time it was conferred as an 
honor upon foreign princes. Then one of them brought a 
reed and thrust it into his right hand for a sceptre ; while an- 
other hastily cut some bits of bramble, twisted them loosely 
into a crown, and forced them upon his temples. Then they 
bowed in mock solemnhYy before him, and cried, "All hail, 
thou king of the Jews ! " After which they spit in his face, 
and snatched the reed from his hand to strike him with it on 
the head. Thus the}^ drove their cruel sport with him till 
every thing was ready for the execution. Then they hastily 
stripped him of the scarlet mantle, gave him his own clothes 
again, and led him out to the hill of Golgotha, outside the 
cit} T gate, where the crucifixion was to take place. 

The heart turns sick at such a scene ! What a depth of 
shame and suffering ! And Jesus knew that the worst was 
3^et to come. What could have kept him from sinking into 
dull despair, what could have preserved him from loathing 
and detesting his fellow-men in the midst of all this cruelty 
and coarseness, except the strength of faith and love, and the 
constant recurrence to the thought that in spite of all, or 
rather b}~ means of all, that he must suffer, even to the crush- 
ing horrors of the end, the goal of his life would be reached, 
though only in his death ? * And so his deep humiliation does 
but make him greater and more glorious in our e} T es, does 
but deepen our reverence for him, and teach us to feel the 
holiness of suffering. God was with him of a truth in these 
hours. The Father had not left him alone. 2 

1 See p. 416. 2 John viii. 29 xvi. 32. 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 447 



Chapter XXXVII. 

THE CRUCIFIXION. 
Mark XV. 206-47.1 

IN accordance with the general custom the sentence of 
death was carried out at once, under the orders of the 
judge ; and in this case therefore by the Roman soldiers, and 
not, as Luke implies, by the Jews. 2 The proceedings before 
Pilate may have occupied an hour, or at the outside two 
hours, and the further preparations cannot have caused any 
long delay. It is therefore very possible that the crucifixion 
took place at about nine o'clock in the morning, as is indicated 
in a note of later origin in the second Gospel. 3 The whole 
force which the procurator had brought from Caesarea to gar- 
rison the royal fortress, consisting of at least a cohort or 
battalion, was standing under arms in the court ; and a mani- 
ple, or company, was now ordered out to keep order during the 
execution, the whole conduct of which was entrusted to the 
officer in command. 

The procession set out through the gate of the palace and 
along the street. It was usual on such occasions to go 
through the most frequented quarters of the city, in order to 
give the terrible example its greatest possible effect. In front 
went a herald proclaiming the culprit's offence, which was 
further set out in painted letters on a white board to be nailed 
over the head of the cross ; and in this case the words were 
"The King of the Jews." Then came the condemned man 
himself, carrying, as a sign of disgrace, the instrument of 
torture upon which he was to end his life ; not the whole of it, 
however, but only the cross-beam to be fixed upon the up- 
right stake. Together with Jesus two robbers, whose exe- 
cution had been delayed till the feast time, were led out to 
death. 

Nothing is recorded of the progress to the place of execu- 
tion, except that when the city gate was reached the cross 
was taken away from Jesus. This was no mark of pity, but 
only a measure to prevent delay and trouble ; for in spite 

1 Matthew xxvii. 31b-61 ; Luke xxiii. 26-56. 

2 Luke xxiii. 25. 3 Mark xv. 25. 



448 THE CRUCIFIXION. 

of the strokes and blows of the executioners Jesus could go 
no further : his strength failed, and he could bear the beam 
no longer. A certain Simon, a native of Cyrene in North 
Africa, who happened to be just entering the city, was com- 
pelled by the soldiers to take up the beam and carry it to 
the place of death. It was naturally against his will that he 
was pressed into the service ; and since the second Gospel 
calls him the father of Alexander and Rufus, 1 as if these 
names belonged to well-known Christians, it has been con 
jectured that Simon, being brought into such close contact 
with Jesus, afterwards joined the community of his disciples. 

All else that we are told under this head is very doubtful, 
if not distinctly legendary. Thus, Luke tells us that in the 
crowd which followed the procession there were many women 
who wept and lamented for Jesus, with cries and gestures of 
grief. But he turned to them and disclaimed their pity with 
the words : " Daughters of Jerusalem ! weep not for me, but 
weep for yourselves and }*our children. For days of such 
unutterable woe are coming that the blessing of motherhood 
shall be held a curse, and the childless woman shall be 
counted blessed in Israel. Then shall the fugitives, in their 
despair, cry to the mountains, ' Fall upon us ! ' and to the 
hills, ' Cover us ! ' For if all this comes upon the green tree 
[upon me], what will not be done to the diy [this aban- 
doned generation] ! " There is a tone of lofty earnestness 
and pity in these words ; but they are not given by either of 
the first two Evangelists ; we are quite unprepared to heai 
them from Jesus, who had hitherto been absolutely silent, 
and was now utterly exhausted ; the occasion hardly afforded 
an opportunity for their utterance, and they give us the 
impression of having been written after the destruction of 
Jerusalem. 2 

The later traditions of the Church tell us of a certain 
woman (Veronica) who was deeply moved with pity, wiping 
the brow of Jesus with a napkin, and in reward for her com- 
passion finding the image of the sufferer stamped upon it 
ever afterwards ! On the other hand, we are told of a Jew 
(Ahasuerus) who heartlessly drove Jesus away when he 
would have rested for a moment on the bench before his 
house ; upon which Jesus condemned him to wander rest- 
lessly over the earth without being able to die, till he should 
return from heaven as the Christ. This was the Wandering 
Jew, — the Jewish people, condemned for its obduracy to 
1 Compare Romans xvi. 13. 2 Compare p. 401. 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 449 

survive when every other ancient people was no more, with- 
out a fatherland, — in exile everywhere, — till the kingdom of 
God be perfected. Finally, we may mention that from the 
fourteenth century down to the present day the streets have 
been pointed out in Jerusalem along which Jesus is said to 
have been taken. They are known as the Via Dolorosa, or 
Woeful Way, and lead through the Sheep Gate, between 
Moriah and Bezetha, past the palace of Pilate (the castle of 
Antonia) , through the Gate of Judgment, to Golgotha ; * and 
the visitor is still shown the very spots at which each detail 
is said to have occurred. 

Though the ancients had no regular places of execution, — 
like our k ' Traitor's Hill," for instance, — yet the}* always chose 
some place outside the envy gates, and b}* preference a spot 
exposed to view on every side, conspicuous from a distance, 
and hard by some frequented thoroughfare. Doubtless these 
conditions were fulfilled by the place selected on this occa- 
sion, which was Golgotha. Its name, which signifies •■ skull," 
suggests a bare, round hill, which we must suppose to have- 
been situated just outside the city, at some spot where there 
would be crowds of passers-by. Its site, however, can no 
longer be identified. 2 The tradition that points out the 
present Golgotha, where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre 
stands, is groundless. 

The destination was soon reached, and the execution begun. 
We will not outrage the feelings of our readers by describing 
all the details of what followed, but we cannot pass it by 
completely. The savage inhumanity of this form of execu- 
tion, expressly designed to make the criminal die as slowly 
and painfully as possible, is be}'ond all description ; and it had 
further gathered round itself the maximum of disgrace and 
shame, — for it was reserved for slaves, robbers, deserters, 
and rioters. Entirely foreign to the Jewish penal code, it had 
been introduced and freely practised b}' the Romans in their 
provinces, as a palpable proof of their supremac}*, and an ex- 
ample well calculated to inspire terror. The punishment had 
now become so familiar to the Jews that the people themselves 
had instantly suggested it to Pilate in answer to his question, 
" AVhat shall I do with Jesus?" 

The cross had various forms. Sometimes the beams were 
crossed obliquely, like an X ; sometimes they were at right 

i See Map IV. 

2 See vol. ii. pp 4, 5 ; compare Hebrews xiii. 12. 



450 THE CRUCIFIXION. 

angles, with the upright stake projecting slightly above the 
cross-beam, thus -(" ; sometimes the cross had the shape of 
a T ; and the most ancient tradition says that this was the 
case with the cross of Jesus. At the place of execution, the 
longest and thickest beam, or stake, was fixed upright in 
the ground, either when the execution took place or before- 
hand, and was duly secured against swaying. Then the 
criminal was stripped, his extended arms were secured by 
strong cords to the other beam, and then long, sharp nails 
were driven through his open palms deep into the wood. 
Then the cross-beam was raised above the upright stake, or 
fixed near the top of it. The sufferer's body was so far sup- 
ported as to prevent its weight from wrenching his hands 
away from the nails, and his feet — which nearly touched the 
ground, since the cross was seldom high — were fixed to the 
upright beam by a sharp iron bolt. Then the executioner's 
task was over, and it only remained to keep guard. The 
scorching heat of the sun, the insupportable thirst, the in 
flamed and burning wounds, and the strained, unnatural at- 
titude, each of which grew more intolerable every moment 
while none could be alleviated, the rush of blood to the heart 
and brain, the unbearable pain and exhaustion, — all these 
must do the rest. None of the wounds were fatal in them- 
selves, and if no finishing- stroke were given to the victim, it 
was generally four-and-twenty hours, and sometimes, if his 
S3'stem were strong, two or three days, before his tortures 
had an end. 

And on this occasion, also, every thing was done as usual. 
The place of execution was lined by soldiers. The three 
stakes were alread} 7 there, or were now erected not far from 
one another. The middle one was for the Nazarene. And 
here one touch of humanity lightens the hideous spectacle. 
A Jewish usage 1 prescribed that a numbing potion should 
be given the victims before they suffered. Jewish tradition 
states that distinguished ladies of Jerusalem prepared it at 
their own expense, from strong wine and grains of frank- 
incense. The first Gospel speaks of wine mixed with worm- 
wood, 2 and Mark of wine and myrrh. In any case it was a 
fragrant drink of numbing and therefore pain-allaying proper- 
ties. But when the executioners offered the cup to Jesus he 
refused it, perhaps after tasting it half-mechanically and per- 
ceiving from its bitter though pleasant taste the purpose it 

1 See Proverbs xxxi. 6, 7. 

2 Matthew xxvii. 34, after an amended version. 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 451 

was meant to serve. He wished to preserve his full con- 
sciousness to the veiy last, and he felt strong enough in God 
to bear the worst. 

They stripped him of his clothes, which fell to the execu- 
tioners ; he was bound, nailed, lifted up, nailed again. Above 
his head the board already mentioned was fixed, recording 
his offence in Latin, Greek, and (if Pilate's writers understood 
enough of the language) Hebrew. Then the two robbers right 
and left of him met the same fate. 

The soldiers had done their work. Four sentries were left 
to guard each cross, and were probably relieved at noon, the 
relays succeeding each other ever}^ three hours. The booty 
was divided by throwing lots from a helmet, to decide who 
should have the upper and who the under garment. The 
officer in charge meanwhile paced up and down, and remained 
upon the place of execution as the responsible agent of the 
procurator. 

There Jesus hung, a prey to unutterable tortures, like th<* 
refuse and the scum of society, laden with its curse ! Alas ! 
it seemed as though he were rejected and thrust out by every 
one ; for not a single friend had dared to show his face upon 
the hill. Ah, yes ! there, behind that group of spectators, 
is a little cluster of faithful Galilaean women, — Magdalene, 
Maiy, Salome, and others, — who had come with him to the 
feast, from the fatherland. 1 Although the glorious expecta- 
tions of their faith had been disappointed no less than those 
of the disciples, yet their love never flagged. And when the 
hearts of all the men had failed them, these faithful women 
dared to come to the hill of crucifixion, that, if by chance 
Jesus should turn his eyes around in hopes of meeting some 
responsive glance of love and pity, he might not look in vain. 
All honor to their steadfast love ! 

Alas ! his enemies were also there, and did not spare him 
even now. They felt no reverence for the greatness of his 
woe ; they had nothing but taunts for the utter wreck of his 
mighty schemes. While many of the spectators looked on in 
silence, there were some who could not leave him unmolested 
even now. Passers by railed at him, wagging their heads in 
sign of contempt and mockery. These were apparently mem- 
bers of the Council and their subordinates in the first instance, 
who were acquainted with the details of the trial, and turned 
their poisoned shafts against him as the unsuccessful reformer 
* see pp. 185, 186, 336, UZ-. 



452 THE CRUCIFIXION. 

ami the false Messiah. " Ah ! you who can break down the 
temple and build it up again in three da} T s, can you save 
yourself from the cross ? " cried one, while the rest applauded 
his sally. " If 3-011 really are the Son of God, why don't you 
come down?" was caught up from mouth to mouth among 
another group. We are expressly told that the high priests 
and Scribes hurled at him the taunting challenge : " There 
hangs the Messiah, — Israel's mighty king ! If he will but 
come down from the cross, we will all believe in him." Nay, 
so infectious is the spirit of reviling mockery that the very 
robbers who were crucified with him caught up the cry, — as 
if the}^ found some alleviation in their pain by venting their 
rage and spleen on Jesus. 

According to the Gospels, even his own deeds of merc} r were 
now thrown in his teeth: "He saved others, but he cannot 
save himself ! " And since the primitive Christians regarded 
the twent} T -second Psalm as the programme of the sufferings 
of the Messiah, Matthew goes the length, in the face of all 
likelihood, of making the councillors cry: "He trusted in 
God ! Then let Him deliver him, if He takes pleasure in 
him ; for he said, ' I am the Son of God ! ' " x We need not 
stay to consider this any further ; but we would fain know, 
were it possible, whether the words of scorn went home, and 
what was passing in the sufferer's heart during these hours. 
But here we can only guess ; for Jesus, with unbroken firm- 
ness, preserved a lofty, a heroic, a majestic silence. He had not 
so deadened his human feelings by fanatical exaltation as to 
rejoice, as many martyrs have done, in the midst of his suffer- 
ings. But he showed such strength of soul, such self-command, 
that in the midst of hideous tortures not a sigh or lamentation 
broke from his lips, — at any rate until the very hour of his 
death. Such was the fruit of his unrelaxed self-discipline, 
and, at the last, of his prayer in Gethsemane ! 2 So after all 
we are not wholly without indications of the mood in which 
he met his death. He had done all he could to keep his con- 
sciousness unclouded, and even in these hours he lived with 
God. He doubtless thought of his suffering and death, since 
the event had shown that they were inevitable, as a part of 
his life-task, — needful to insure the establishment of the 
kingdom of God. He had been faithful, he had shrunk from 
nothing, and it was not in vain that he had braved the worst. 
He could think of the past without self-reproach ; and the 

1 See Psalm xxii. 7-9 ; compare vol. ii. pp. 308-310. 

2 See pp. 424, 425. 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 



453 



future was rich in the fairest hopes. His e}*e was turned to 
heaven with unbroken trust in God ; with unextinguished 
love for man he looked down from his cross upon those blinded 
multitudes and that cit}- that murdered the prophets ! 

To a certain extent at least his thoughts are strikingly in- 
terpreted by a few sentences which the third Evangelist lays 
upon his lips. He tells us that as Jesus was being fixed to 
the cross, or immediately afterwards, he said : " Father, for- 
give them, for they know not what the^y do!" But at this 
moment he was surrounded onry b} 7 the Roman soldiers, who 
were simply doing their dut}- ; whereas the prayer must, from 
the nature of the case, be referred to the Jews, and especially 
the members of the Sanhedrim. And }'et, even if he did not 
give it utterance, there lived in the soul of Jesus through 
these hours of horror an exceeding love even of those who 
hated him, — and hated him because of his fideluy to God, — 
which might well force a prayer for them to his lips ; there 
lived an unshaken reverence for human nature which could 
not admit the possibilit}' of a wanton crime committed with 
open ej-es. 1 Again, when the Jewish elders mocked him, and 
the soldiers while offering him vinegar followed their exam- 
ple, Luke makes him speak a second time. One of the two 
robbers, he sa}'s, had been reviling him and sa} r ing, "Are 
not } T ou the Messiah? Well, then, rescue yourself and us ! " 
But the other rebuked him and said : " Have } T ou no fear of 
God while undergoing the same punishment as this man? 
And we indeed rightly, for we are receiving what our deeds 
deserve ; but he has done no wrong." Then he turned to the 
cross that stood between them and said: "Jesus, think of 
me when you come with your kingdom ! " Upon which Jesus 
spoke the words of comfort : " Of a truth I tell you that this 
ver} 7 day you shall be with me in paradise." Here again we 
are unable to accept the words as historical ; partly because 
the first two Gospels leave no room for them, and because of 
their reference to the paradise in the underworld ; - but chiefly 
because the} 7 represent the malefactor as expecting Jesus to 
return to earth as the Messiah, and to raise up and judge the 
dead. But, for all that, the unshaken confidence in his own 
future, the desire to save the lost even now, and the lofty 
sense of conscious dignit} T which are here ascribed to Jesus, 
unquestionably reflect with perfect fidelity his tone of heart 
and mind even in these hours of horror. 

1 See pp. 228 ff., 175 : compare Acts vii. 60 and Isaiah liii. 12. 

2 See ante, pp. 40, 42. 



454 THE CRUCIFIXION. 

Another exclamation is recorded by our oldest witnesses, 
Matthew and Mark, as uttered from the cross. About three 
in the afternoon, it seems, when his life was fast ebbing, his 
suffering became for a moment more than he could bear, and 
at last he broke the lofty silence he had hitherto preserved by 
a piercing cry of pain that almost sounded like a cry of de- 
spair. The Evangelists accordingly, with the twent} T -second 
Psalm still in their minds, interpret the cry by the opening- 
words of that poem : " Eli, Eli ! lama sabacthani? " — " Mj r 
God, m} T Gocl ! why hast thou forsaken me ? " Now some 
of those who were standing b}^, the Evangelists go on to sa}% 
when the}' heard his ciy, exclaimed in mockery, " Listen ! he 
is calling for Elijah ! " upon which one of them ran up, and 
dipping a sponge into the vinegar put it on the end of a cane, 
reached it up to his lips to refresh him a little, and said, 
"Well, then, let us see whether Elijah will come and take 
him down." Or perhaps these latter words were spoken by 
some of the others who held their companion back : " Let it 
alone ! we must see whether Elijah comes to take him down." 
Now this supposed exclamation of Jesus has sometimes been 
interpreted veiy- perversely, and has even given rise within 
the Church to such offensive doctrines as that Jesus lost his 
faith in himself and his cause, or that God did actually desert 
him because of the sins of mankind. But in any case it 
seems to us far more probable that these words of the Mes- 
sianic passion-psalm were put into the mouth of Jesus by tra- 
dition than that he really uttered them. The sequel, too, 
throws great suspicion on the report ; for the Jews were not 
allowed to approach the cross, and what did the Roman sol- 
diers know about Elijah? Besides, if the Jews had really 
heard him cry ' ' Eli ! " or ' ' Eloi ! " they would hardly have mis- 
taken the words of the twenty-second Psalm for a cry to the 
precursor of the Messianic kingdom, — a mistake upon which 
their raillery is made to depend. We must, therefore, put 
aside these words, as in all probability unhistorical ; but, on 
the other hand, there is not the least reason to doubt the uni- 
form tradition that a few moments before his death Jesus 
uttered a cry of pain, and that, as he was gasping almost in 
the death- throe, some one refreshed him by putting a sponge 
to his lips, dipped in the soldiers' sour drink, — a mixture of 
vinegar, water, and eggs, — a cruse of which would certainly 
be there for the use of the sentries. 1 

Only a few minutes afterwards, in the very death-struggle 
1 Compare Luke xxiii. 36 ; John xix. 28, 29 ; Hebrews v. 7. 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 455 

itself, followed a second cry, which Luke interprets, again at 
the suggestion of a passage in a psalm, 1 as his last prayer of 
trust: "Father! into thy hands I commend my spirit." 
Then his head sunk upon his breast, a deadly pallor over- 
spread his face, and all was over. 

The struggle was at an end ; the suffering was done. Com- 
paratively speaking, it had not been long. Jesus certainly 
breathed his last before sunset, and apparently soon after 
three in the afternoon. He had, therefore, only been upon 
the cross six, or at most eight, hours. But all that he had 
alreadj T gone through during the last few days and weeks, 
especially the evening, the night, and the morning that had 
just passed, together with the scourging and maltreatment 
he had undergone, and above all his intense mental suffering, 
had already almost completely exhausted his powers (as we 
saw on the way from the judgment hall) , and his remaining 
strength fast ebbed away. It has sometimes been supposed 
that the great ciy he uttered at the moment of his death was 
caused by sudden cessation of the action of the heart, the 
bursting of a blood vessel in the heart or brain, or the rup- 
ture of an artery. But all this is the merest guess-work. 

For us, let us confess it, it is a great relief that his suffer- 
ings were not protracted. In the midst of all the mysteries 
which perplex the course of human events, there is something 
unspeakably dark and painful in such an end to such a life. 
But the darkness is not unrelieved by light. Proof against 
the fiercest trials, unflinching when called to the supremest 
sacrifice, unconditionally faithful to the lofty task of his life, 
obedient without reserve to the holy will of his Father, Jesus 
did in truth lay the foundations of the kingdom of God, 
though far otherwise than he conceived ; he did in truth bind 
the world to him by eternal ties of deepest obligation, and 
make himself the Christ. The apostolic age did well to 
emphasize the fact that God, when he would bring many 
sons to glory, — that is to the realization of their exalted and 
blessed destiny as men, — had made the accomplisher of their 
salvation rise through suffering to a spotless moral perfec- 
tion, and thereby also to the highest rank in the kingdom of 
heaven. 2 For Jesus himself made perfect, and mankind 
bound to him with eternal ties, even that cross on Golgotha 
is not too high a price ! 

It is but natural that the imagination of the Christians in 
every age, even the earliest, should have seized upon this 

1 Psalm xxxi. 5. 2 Hebrews ii. 10, v. 8, 9. 



456 THE CRUCIFIXION. 

scene of the Master's death upon the cross ; and since the 
gross dishonor done to him outrages our sense of the fitness 
of things even now, after so many centuries, we can hardly 
wonder that Christian feeling early demanded some imme- 
diate compensation, some visible and instantaneous glorifica- 
tion of Jesus, to blot out at once the deep humiliation and 
shame of his execution. God's sacred protest at the murder 
of his Son must have taken some concrete shape ; the blessed 
fruits of the Lord's self-sacrifice, the glorious triumph of the 
rejected one over the hostile powers which seemed to have 
subdued him, must have found some visible expression ; and 
all this must have appeared in forms so palpable and over- 
whelming that the spectators returned from the hill with 
their hearts filled with reverence, while all who had been 
indifferent or hostile were covered with disma} T and shame. 
Hence all those metaphors in our Gospels which became 
more than metaphors almost immediately ; hence those fresh 
lines which were constantly added to the picture of the cruci- 
fixion to make the rehabilitation of the crucified more and 
more complete. 

Even the oldest accounts we have mention two wonders : 
During the last hours of the life of Jesus we are told, from 
noon till three o'clock, darkness came over all the earth. 
Perhaps the period indicated is intended to cover the whole 
time when Jesus was upon the cross. Now, since the Pass- 
over is always celebrated at full moon, an actual eclipse of 
the sun is of course out of the question ; but the symbolical 
significance of the story is as clear as possible. Nature her- 
self mourned for the murder of the Messiah. The sun re- 
fused to look upon the scene of horror, and concealed his 
splendor while the "Light of the World" was setting. At 
the very moment, we are further told, when Jesus breathed 
his last, the heavenly adorned and embroidered tapestry that 
hung as a curtain between the Holy and the Holy of Holies 
in the temple was rent in two from top to bottom. Here 
also it would be absurd to look for an historic fact ; but the 
thought at once suggests itself, that at the death of Jesus the 
partition behind which the thrice Hory One withdrew from 
every eye in mysterious obscurity was taken awaj T , and ac- 
cess to Him was made free to all : 1 while the priestly dignit}' 
was annulled, or rather made the portion of every one, and 
the fear of the Lord was superseded by trustful communion 
with the Father. In place of this, the Gospel of the Hebrews 

1 Compare Hebrews ix. 7 ff., x. 19 ff. 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 457 

said that the broad and lofty threshold of the temple was 
broken and fell to pieces : the significance may be the same 
as in our Gospels, or it may perhaps mean that the temple 
service was annulled by the great sacrifice on Golgotha. We 
are also told by our oldest authorities that when the officer 
who stood by the cross heard the great cry with which Jesus 
gave up his life, he exclaimed, " Surely this man was the Son 
of God ! " or, according to Luke, " Surely this was a right- 
eous man ! " Heathendom, face to face with the djing 
Christ, recognizes in all his majesty him whom his own 
people have rejected. 

But the same path must be pursued still further. Faith 
demanded still more and still greater wonders. The earth 
trembled, sa}'s a later account in Matthew. It shuddered 
with horror at the deed. The rocks were cleft, and the sepul- 
chral caves gaped open, while many bodies of long-buried 
saints, pious men of the olden time, patriarchs and prophets, 
returned to life. And after the resurrection of Jesus they 
left their graves and went into the Cit} T of God, and appeared 
to many of the people there. It was the foreshadowing of 
the resurrection at the last day. At the moment when Jesus, 
b}' surrendering himself freely to the very death, exalted him - 
self to the dignity of the Messiah, he secured his triumph 
over the realm of shades which must ere long give up its prey 
at his commanding word. Here we may add that the second 
part of the " Gospel of Nicodemus," which is twelve chapters 
long, contains a detailed description, purporting to come from 
two eye-witnesses, of how Jesus went down into the under- 
world, whence he released all the saints, with Adam at their 
head, and conducted them to paradise. Well might the officer 
and sentinels be filled with dread ! Na} T , Luke, even without 
mentioning the miracle of the earthquake or of the resurrec- 
tion of the dead, maj T well sa} T that all the people who had 
streamed together to witness the execution, when they had 
seen all that happened, went home and smote their breasts in 
deepest penitence and sense of guilt. 

Once more be it said, we sympathize intensely with the 
feeling that called these stories into being. But history has 
nothing to tell us of any restoration to honor taking place on 
Golgotha, of any special occurrence at the death of Jesus to 
reverse or mitigate his disgrace. His shameful end was, and 
continued to be, a fearfu* shock to his disciples, and made it 
simply impossible to man} 7 of the Jews and heathen to believe 
in him as the future Christ. There is no trace of his death 
vol. in. 20 



458 THE CRUCIFIXION. 

having made an} T impression at the time upon the people ol 
Jerusalem or the strangers ; upon the Jews or the Romans ; 
upon those who witnessed or those who compassed it. 

On the other hand, we have what appears to be a trust* 
worthy account of the last honors paid b}- the hand of friend- 
ship to the mortal remains of Jesus. 

The evening was alreacly falling, and the Sabbath would 
soon begin. Should the body be left hanging on the cross? 
It was the general rule among the Romans and the Greeks to 
deny burial to crucified offenders, and leave them as a spoil 
to birds of ~prej and otner creatures. But we have alreacty 
seen that the rulers complied in mairv respects with the usages 
of the subject people ; and the Jews, partly out of humanity, 
but chiefly to guard the countiy of the Lord from pollution, 1 
never left an} T one unburied, even though he had been hanged. 
Indeed, strictly speaking, no bod}' should be left hanging on 
the wood even for a single night, as would have occurred in 
this instance, owing to the rapid death of Jesus, had not one 
of his friends undertaken the care of his burial. 

It was not one of his chosen disciples, nor one of the 
faithful Galilsean women, who took courage for the last ser- 
vice of love. It was a man whom we meet for the first and 
last time on this occasion, and of whom we know nothing 
except his name (Joseph) and his birthplace (Arimathea or 
Ramathaim, in the ancient territory of Ephraim). We are 
told that he too had joined the disciples, though probably 
only during the stay of Jesus in Jerusalem ; and, further, 
that he looked with longing for the Messianic kingdom. 
What a crushing sense of disappointment then must have 
accompanied this last sacred duty of friendship ! Perhaps 
Joseph was acquainted with the procurator ; at an}- rate, we 
are told that he was a rich man, and later accounts even 
make him one of the elders or distinguished laj T men, who had 
a seat in the Sanhedrim : but the} T are careful to tell us he had 
taken no part in the hostile deliberations and violent measures 
of that body against the Nazarene. Be this as it may, no 
sooner had Joseph perceived or heard that the Master had 
breathed his last upon the instrument of torture than he asked 
and obtained an audience of Pilate, and begged the body of 
the crucified Jesus, in order that he might give it an honorable 
burial. 

It was a bold step. How easil}- he might be suspected of 

1 Deuteronomy xxi. 23. 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 459 

siding with the "King of the Jews," who had been con- 
demned as i tumult-maker ! And still worse, what hatred 
and ignominy from his own people and his own colleagues 
he was dragging down upon his head ! But he could not let 
such thoughts restrain him. Jesus had inspired him with so 
deep a reverence that he could not suffer his mortal remains 
to be left hanging on the cross, and then after a while be 
thrust in shame into the earth. If he had been unable to 
rescue him, or if the sudden catastrophe had so taken him by 
surprise that he had not even attempted any thing, he would 
at least do all that still remained. 

The procurator granted his request (which was probably 
backed, according to the custom of the time, b} r a consider- 
able sum of money) , and gave hini a written order to the of- 
ficer at Golgotha, or else despatched a messenger with him. 
Mark, indeed, tells us that Pilate was astonished to hear that 
the Nazarene was dead already ; that he sent for the officer 
in charge, and when he learned from him that Jesus had been 
dead some time, granted Joseph's request. But this seems 
highly improbable when we consider the short space of time 
in which the whole transaction was completed, and the abso 
lute necessity of the responsible man remaining on the spot 
at Golgotha, where the two robbers still hung alive upon the 
stakes. 

Enough ! Joseph went with a few dependants to the hill. 
The centre cross was loosened and laid upon the ground, the 
nails were drawn out, the cords cut through ; and, since Gol- 
gotha at that moment was an utterly unsuitable place in 
which to pa} r due honors to the dead, the body was immedi- 
ately laid in the usual open coffin. The near approach of the 
Sabbath would prevent all but a very few from following the 
coffin as it was borne to a place hard b}', where Joseph pos- 
sessed a sepulchre hewn out of the rock, or had obtained 
leave to use it on this occasion. The later tradition adds, in 
honor of Jesus, that it was a new sepulchre in which no one 
had as yet been laid. 1 Here reverent and careful hands 
cleansed the body from blood, wrapped the head in a napkin, 
and shrouded the limbs in broad strips of linen. If under 
any circumstances a body that had been so mangled would 
have been deemed suitable for embalmment, now at any rate 
there was no time for it. It was needless. All was done that 
friendship and reverence could do for him whose death was 
mourned with such unutterable woe, and nothing essential 
was wanting to the last honors paid him. 
1 See p. 361. 



460 THE CRUCIFIXION. 

So now the stiffly-shrouded corpse was carefully borne into 
the cave, and laid in one of the niches in the side. Accord- 
ing to Jewish wont, the mouth of the sepulchre was closed by 
a great stone or mass o f rock, which served as a door and 
protected the tomb from violation by beasts of prey. This 
stone would be left unmoved until another corpse, belonging 
to the possessor's family, should be brought there likewise to 
its place of rest. The mournful duty was now done, and in 
the deep affliction of his soul the bold and faithful friend 
turned homeward. 

Meanwhile the evening had quite set in and the Sabbath had 
begun. This was an hour, especially at Jerusalem, of joyous, 
consecrated rest. The Sabbath lamp was lighted, the Sab- 
bath garments donned, and the Sabbath meal prepared with 
more than usual sumptuousness in honor of the feast and the 
innumerable guests. As the} 7 reclined at table, the members 
of the Council and many of the Pharisees besides might re- 
hearse the day's events with a feeling of satisfaction and re- 
lief, and might thank the Lord for his mighty help and the 
unmistakable signs he had given them of his satisfaction with 
their zeal in his honor. 

Outside there, by the sepulchre, all was still and cold and 
lonely, and yet not altogether deserted. The moonlight re- 
vealed two female forms, bent down in speechless agony, and 
the stillness of the night was only broken by their sobs. 
They were Mary of Magdala and her namesake, the faithful 
friends who had followed Jesus from Galilee. Had the}' ac- 
companied the bier from the hill of death ? Or had they not 
heard till later on what Joseph had been doing? There they 
sat now, over against that cave, and could not tear themselves 
away. What was not hidden there, behind that stone, for 
ever ! What inestimable treasures destroyed by rude and 
wanton hands ! What glorious promises dashed at once and 
for ever ! 

And we too stand with them in thought ; and as we gaze 
upon that stone and think of him who lies behind it, concep- 
tions and emotions rush upon the brain and heart, and force 
the lips to utterance. Rest sweetly from thy toilsome work, 
thou noble benefactor, deliverer of mankind, great son of 
God ! Thy triumph is secure. Thy name shall be borne on 
the breath of the winds through all the world ; and with that 
name no thought except of goodness, nobleness, and love 
shall link itself in the bosoms of thy brothers who have 



THE CRUCIFIXION. 461 

learned to know thee and what thou art. Thy name shall be 
the symbol of salvation to the weak and wandering, of resto- 
ration to the fallen and the guilt}', of hope to all who sink in 
comfortless despair. Thy name shall be the nrighty cry of 
progress in freedom, in truth, in purity, — the living symbol of 
the dignity of man, the epitome of all that is noble, loft}', and 
hoi}' upon earth. To thy name shall be inseparably bound 
that ideal of humanity which thou didst bring into the world, 
and which can never be rejected from it more. Thy life was 
short, yet in it thou didst more than any one of all thy breth- 
ren to uplift the lives and souls of men. And now that thou 
art dead, it shall be seen that they for whom thou didst give 
thyself up to the very death are not ungrateful. From thy 
cross goes forth a power which is slowly but surely regenerat- 
ing the world. Thy spirit, which remains behind, shall fulfil 
thy task. The future is thine own. Thou great deliverer, 
thou monarch in the realm of truth, of love, of peace, we do 
thee homage ! 



Book II. 
THE APOSTLES. 



Chapter I. 

THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 

Matthew XXVII. 62-XXVIII. ; Luke XXIV. 13-53 ; Acts 1. 
3-14; 1 Corinthians XV. 3-8. 1 

SO Jesus and his cause appeared to have been finally 
crushed. A single vigorous and well-concerted measure 
had smothered the Messianic agitation. The prophet of Gali- 
lee had paid, bj^ a malefactor's death, for his audachVy in com- 
ing to Jerusalem itself to preach his gospel and unfurl his 
banner of freedom and of the spirit, for his heroic effort to 
make God's kingdom come. Who was there left to take up 
his task? His best disciples and his closest friends were 
fugitives and apostates. 

Yet hopeless as things seemed to be, the unshaken confi- 
dence with which Jesus had faced his lot was justified by the 
event. From his momentary defeat he rose again with wider 
and deeper influence than ever. Were there no danger of 
misunderstanding, we would gladly use an expression of his 
own, 2 and speak of this as his u rising again" or " resurrec- 
tion." But this word is commonly used to signify something 
ve^ different from his triumph after defeat. For when the faith 
of the Apostles and other disciples, recovering from the shock 
under which at first it had tottered and collapsed, appeared 
once more in renovated strength, it took the form of a be- 
lief that Jesus had risen up from the dead and ascended to 
heaven. This is what is generally meant by the " Resurrec- 
tion ; " and if we were to employ the word, it might seem as 
though we accepted this early belief as an historical fact. 

1 Mark xvi. ; Luke xxiv. 1-12. 2 Compare pp. 328 f., 350. 



1 See, for instance, Revelation xx. 12-14 ; and compare op. 272, 313, 387 
8. 

2 Compare vol. i. pp. 528-531; ii. pp. 395, 396; pp. 331 ff., 378 ff. 




tnougii we accepted this early belief as an historical fact. 

l Mark xvi. ; Luke xxiv. 1-12. 2 Compare pp. 328 f., 350. 



RESURRECTION Oi JESUS. 4.63 

Moreover, in saying that the belief in the ' ' resurrection " 
was but the form assumed by the reviving faith of the disci- 
ples, we have explained our reasons for dealing wdth it in our 
Second Book, which treats of the Apostles, instead of includ- 
ing it in the history of Jesus himself as the last scene of his 
life on earth ; for, amidst all the doubts that hang around this 
subject, of one thing at least we ma}* be sure, namely, that it 
forms a chapter of the inner life of the disciples, not of the 
outward life of the Master. In other words, the resurrection 
of Jesus is not an external fact of history, but simply a form 
of belief assumed by the faith of his friends and earliest 
disciples. 

Let us begin by considering what that word ' c resurrection " 
realty meant, whether applied to Jesus or to others. Later 
representations, down to our own times, have regarded it as 
equivalent to a rising from the grave ; but the question is, 
what it meant in the faith and preaching of the Apostles, in 
the genuine, original, primitive tradition that Jesus had risen. 
Now, "resurrection" means elsewhere a return from the 
realm of shades to the human life on earth ; ' and in like 
manner it was said that Jesus too had left the underworld, 
but not, in this case, to return at once to life upon the earth, 
but to be taken up provisionally into heaven. Originally the 
resurrection and ascension of Jesus w r ere one. It w-as only 
later that the conception sprang up of his having paused upon 
earth, whether for a single day or for several w r eeks, on his 
journey from the ab}~ss to the height. 

We may therefore safety assert that if the friends of Jesus 
had thought as we do of the lot of those that die,' 2 they would 
never have so much as dreamed of their Master's resurrection 
or ascension. For to the Christian belief of to-da} r it would 
be, so to speak, a matter of course that Jesus, like all good 
and noble souls, — and indeed above all others, — would go 
straight "to a better world," " to heaven," " to God," at the 
instant of his death ; but in the conception of the Jews, in- 
eluding the Apostles, this was impossible. Heaven was the 
abode of the Lord and his angels onty ; and if an Enoch or 
an Elijah had been caught up there alive, to dwell there for a 
time, it was certain that all who died, without exception, even 
the purest and most hoty, must go down as shades into the 
realms of the dead in the bowels of the earth, — and thence, 

1 See, for instance, Revelation xx. 12-14; and compare op. 272, 313, 387 
388, 

2 Compare vol. i. pp. 528-531; ii. pp. 395, 396; pp. 331 ff., 378 ff. 



464 RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 

of course, they could not issue except by "rising again/' 
And this is why we are never told that Jesus rose "from 
death," far less "from the .grave," but always "from the 
dead," — that is, from the place where the shades of the de- 
parted abide ; from the realms of the dead. The dead, when 
thus waked into life again, must have a boclv, whether it 
were a new one, 1 or whether the old one left the grave for 
him. 2 Now the Apostles could not accept or endure the 
thought that their Master was left in the abyss a powerless 
and lifeless shadow, — they were convinced that he must be 
living in heaven in gloiy ; and, moreover, they believed 
themselves to have evidence of his continued existence. The 
only possible conclusion, therefore, was that he had risen from 
the realm of shades. 

All this is simple enough. Is it not equally clear that 
where there is no belief in this realm of shades a " resurrec- 
tion " has no meaning ? And if we have all ceased to believe 
in any such shadow-land, we are forced to admit that the nar- 
ratives we are about to consider do not concern a fact in the 
life of Jesus, but a conception on the part of his friends, — the 
origin of which we must, if possible, explain. 

The contradictions in the narratives themselves, though so 
great as to lay insuperable difficulties in the way of a literal 
interpretation, no longer surprise us when we know that we 
are dealing with a product of the religious imagination, grad- 
ually amplified and embellished by tradition. 

The following story indicates the way in which the disciples 
rose to the belief that their Master still lived and would yet 
be the Christ : — 

It was on the Sunday after the crucifixion that two of the 
disciples were going from Jerusalem to Emmaus, about two 
leagues distant, conversing on the way about all that had oc- 
curred. Now while they were discussing their divergent 
views or doubts they were joined by a third wa} T farer. This 
was no other than Jesus himself; but they were so blinded 
that they did not know him. "What are } t ou speaking 
about," he asked, " that makes you look so sad as you walk 
along?" "What are we speaking of?" repeated Cleopas, 
one of the two ; ' ' then are you the only one among all the 
strangers in the Holy City that does not know what has hap- 
pened there in these last days? " " What about?" he asked. 

1 See p. 272; compare 1 Corinthians xv. 50. 

2 See p, 457; compare John v. 28, 29. 



RESURRECTION OF JESES. 465 

"About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a 
prophet, mighty in deed and word in the eyes of God and 
of all the people ; and our high priests and councillors gave 
him up to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that 
he was the promised deliverer of Israel. [And moreover 
this is the third day since it was done ; and some of the 
women among us who went in the early morning to his tomb 
have filled us with consternation by declaring that the}- could 
not find his bod}' there, and that they saw a vision of angels 
who told them he was alive. Some of our number went 
straightway to the spot, and found it as the women had said ; 
but him the}' did not see.]" "How blind your eyes, how 
dull your hearts," cried Jesus, " to the predictions of the 
prophets ! Was not this suffering the very path by which it 
was appointed for the Messiah to ascend his throne ? " Then 
he went through the Law and the prophetic writings with 
them, and showed them in the several books all that referred 
to him. Thus the}' drew near to Emmaus, and he made as 
if he would go on alone. But they would not let him go. 
" Stay with us," they urged, " for the evening is closing in 
already." So he yielded to their pressure ; they went in, and 
in a few moments they were all reclining at the evening meal. 
Then Jesus, taking the place of the head of the family as 
usual, took the bread, uttered the thanksgiving, broke it, and 
handed it to them. In a moment the scales fell from their 
eyes, they looked at one another, they looked at him, — 
they knew him ; but at that very moment he vanished mi- 
raculously from their sight ! Every doubt disappeared from 
their minds. "Did not our hearts burn within us," they 
said, "when he was speaking with us and explaining the 
Scriptures to us on the way ? " They instantly rose up from 
the table and hurried back in the dark to Jerusalem. There 
the Eleven and the other disciples anticipated them by the 
exclamation, " The Lord has truly risen and appeared to Si- 
mon ! " — upon which the two related, in their turn, what had 
happened to them on the way, and how they had recognized 
Jesus as he broke the bread. 

The source and origin of this beautiful picture are difficult 
to ascertain. Luke must have accepted it literally when he 
took it up into the cycle of his stories of the resurrection, to 
which it does not properly belong ; 1 but this proves nothing 
Perhaps it was Luke, or perhaps some earlier narrator, who 

1 Compare Luke xxiv. 24 with verse 12, and verse 34 with verses 37 and 41, 
tt seq. ; and see Mark xvi. 13 b. 

20* 



466 RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 

retouched the picture with no great skill, and added such 
traits, for instance, as the visit of the women and the other 
disciples to the tomb, which we have included in brackets. 
No such place as Emmaus has been found within two leagues 
of Jerusalem. There is an Emmaus (or Mcopolis) at a 
distance of six or seven leagues from the City of the Tem- 
ple, but this cannot be the place intended. There is a bath- 
ing place of the same name on the Sea of Gennesareth, — 
and this tempts us to ask whether the scene was not origi- 
nally laid in Galilee (which really witnessed the. reviving 
faith of the disciples) , and subsequently transferred to Jeru- 
salem without change of names. Finally, we ma} T note that 
Jesus appears in different places — to the two travellers and 
to Simon — at the same time. But in spite of all these 1 races 
of composite origin, the background and general outline ol 
the picture still furnish us with precious materials for retra- 
cing the origin of the belief of the disciples in the resurrection ; 
for we must never forget that a powerful imagination, sup- 
ported by the symbolical forms of expression then current, 
might well translate reminiscences into present facts, sus- 
pense or other emotions into external events. 

The friends of Jesus — so we read this story — were bit- 
terly disappointed in their fairest hopes by the cross of Jesus. 
And yet they still regarded their Master as a mighty prophet, 
and their hearts and mouths still overflowed with him. And 
while they thought and spoke of him, — at one in burning 
love, but often widely severed in opinions and expectations, — 
Jesus himself came to them. Not the glorified Christ from 
heaven, 1 but the Jesus they had known on earth. They did 
not perceive or did not notice it ; but he was there, drawn to 
their sides by the magic power of loving and reverent remem- 
brance, — he was with them, speaking to them, drawing out 
their thoughts, and then correcting and instructing them, — 
until at last, in the light of the event, they began to under- 
stand his teaching of the last few weeks, 2 so fruitless at the 
time. They saw how the Scripture pointed out, in man}- a 
special utterance and in the common lot of prophets, what 
the sad end must be, and how the temporal defeat would lead 
to victory and would win the Messianic crown. When rightly 
looked into, the Scripture was full of hints and predictions 
of the event. 3 How could they be so slow of heart ! They 
would fain prolong those moments of his presence, hardly 

L Matthew xviii. 20, xxviii. 20. 2 See pp. 326 ff., and 405. 

» Acts ii. 27, xiii. 34, 35 (Psalm xvi. 10; Isaiah lv. 3, liii. 10; Hosea vi. 2), 



INSURRECTION OF JESUS. 467 

realized, in the life of reminiscence, — they would not let him 
go ! And then as they lay down to meat and broke the bread, 
that symbolic action on the last evening of the Master's life 
started back into their minds, the impression of that last 
meeting was renewed ; they remembered all he told them, 
and above all that clear announcement of his death and of his 
triumph ; * and then — the scales fell from their e} T es, he was 
the. Promised One once more! And now he is gone from 
their bodily sight, — but henceforth nothing can disturb their 
faith, He is the Christ. He cannot be a prey to the realm 
of shades. He lives ! He will come again ! 

Are we then to understand that the friends of Jesus had 
visions of their departed Master which, though really but the 
fruit and the expression of reviving faith, were looked upon 
bj r them as conclusive proof that he had left the underworld 
and was living still? We cannot be absolutely certain, but 
in all probability we must answer this question in the affirma- 
tive ; for we have a statement on the subject that is free from 
all ambiguity, and is far more ancient and more trustworthy 
than the great mass of stories of the resurrection. It is a 
passage in a letter written by Paul to the community at Cor- 
inth, in the } T ear 58 a.d., in which he reminds them what he 
had told them a few j'ears before, in accordance with what he 
himself had heard from eye-witnesses many years before, — 
not long after the death of Jesus. It was k ' that Christ died 
for the forgiveness of our sins, according to the Scripture ; 
and was buried and was raised up the third day, according to 
the Scripture ; and appeared to Cephas (Peter) , and after- 
wards to the Twelve. Then he appeared to more than live 
hundred brethren at once, most of whom are still living, but 
some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, and 
afterwards to all the Apostles, and last of all to me also." 

Now, on the assumption that it comes from the hand of 
Paul, this enumeration, which evidently aims at completeness, 
deserves our confidence ; for Paul would certainly take care 
to inform himself accurately in such a matter. In speaking 
of the "resurrection," he does not mean the reanimation of 
the body of Jesus ; and indeed he expressly excludes such a 
thought by ascribing to the Christ a glorified and spiritual 
bod} T not made of flesh and blood. 2 It is equally certain that 
he thinks of the Christ as having appeared from heaven ; and 

1 See pp. 407, 409. 

2 1 Corinthians xv. 42-54; 2 Corinthians v. 1-4; Philippian? iii. 21. 



468 RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 

his ranking the appearance to himself, — unquestionably the 
product of his own fervid imagination, 1 — as parallel with 
those which preceded it, seems to indicate that they were all 
visions alike. And indeed the return to earth of one already 
dead and glorified, or the veritable apparition of a spirit, is a 
thing which far transcends the limits of credibility. And, 
besides, we know that the Israelites, though well aware of the 
difference between a vision and something seen under ordinary 
conditions,- were yet firmly convinced that what the}' saw in 
the ecstasy of a vision had an objective reality corresponding 
to it. 3 It may deserve our attention also that in this passage 
Paul first supports the faith in the resurrection of Jesus by an 
appeal to the Scripture, 4 and subsequently confirms it by a 
reductio ad absurdum. 6 In other words, he is more inclined 
to demonstrate that Christ must have risen than to build upon 
adequate testimon} 7 to the fact that he had risen. 

With regard to each of the separate appearances for which 
the Apostle vouches, we may note that even the one witnessed 
by five hundred believers offers no insuperable difficulty ; for 
when we remember how infectious the excited condition fa- 
vorable to visions sometimes is, it seems far from impossible, 
that the whole of a numerous gathering of disciples might 
believe themselves to see the Master. History furnishes 
other instances, not less striking, of a number of people in a 
state of spiritual exaltation seeing one and the same image 
before their eyes. Nor need we wonder at the preservation 
of the expression, "the Twelve," though one of course was 
wanting. Who are meant by u all the Apostles" it is im- 
possible to say. *' James " is the brother of Jesus. 

As to James, we ma} T remark that the only other ancient 
authority which speaks of Jesus appearing to him is the Gos- 
pel according to the Hebrews. There it is said that when 
the risen Jesus had given his grave-clothes to the high priest's 
servant, he showed himself to James, who had sworn after 
the Last Supper (at which he was not realty present) that he 
would never eat bread again till he had seen Jesus risen from 
the dead. So Jesus now brought him a cake of bread, offered 
thanks, broke it, and gave it to him with the words: ''Eat 
this bread, my brother; for the Son of Man has risen from 
the dead " The whole story is evidently a later invention in 

1 Compare 2 Corinthians xii. 1-4. 

2 See, for instance, Acts ix. 7, x. 10, 11, 17, 19. 
8 See 2 Kings vi. 17; 2 Corinthians xii. 3. 

4 1 Corinthians xv. 4: compare pp. 37 f. 
6 1 Corinthians xv. 12-19. 



RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 469 

honor of James, who was held in high esteem b} 7 the community 
at Jerusalem. 

Returning to the statement in the Epistle to the Corinthians, 
we observe that Peter is mentioned as the first who saw the 
Master. Now of course the first appearance was the really 
critical event. It gave the impulse ; and the rest were the 
natural consequence of the fervent longing of all the disciples 
to share the privilege of him who had already seen the glori- 
fied Master It deserves our attention therefore that both 
here and in the stoiy of the journey to Emmaus Peter is 
mentioned before an}' of the others. Now Peter's fervent 
and excitable temperament, 1 acting upon his deep sense of 
the injury he had done to his beloved Master and his longing 
to receive assurance of forgiveness, might well throw him 
into just such a state of exaltation 2 as might make him see 
the form he loved rise up before him, with an expression of 
exalted tenderness and generous forgiveness, as a mighty 
incentive and a glorious consolation. 3 

But it ought to be mentioned that, according to another 
tradition preserved in our Gospels, it was not Peter, but the 
faithful friends who had seen Jesus die, — the two Marys, 
whom we left in speechless agony at the sepulchre, — to whom 
the first assurance was vouchsafed that their Master had 
arisen. It was an angel, or Jesus himself, who brought the 
proclamation to them (with or without their companion, Sa- 
lome), and told them to carry the great news to the disciples, 
and especially to Peter. In itself this account is at least as 
credible as the other. The tried attachment and touching 
fidelity of these women to Jesus, working upon the more sen- 
sitive female S3'stem, would make them eminently susceptible 
of such impressions as we are discussing ; and it seems more 
probable that tradition would gradually substitute Peter for 
the women than that they should have usurped his place. In 
fact we find the women, in this version of the events, specially 
charged to take the glad news to Peter, 4 and may fanc} T that 
we see therein the first indication of a feeling that gradually 
gave the place of honor to the Apostle, to the exclusion of 
the women. On the other hand, great doubt is thrown upon 
the whole picture of the women and their vision by its un- 
historical setting, — representing Jerusalem as the locality, 
the Sunday morning as the time, and the empty tomb as the 

1 Compare p. 181. 2 Compare Acts x. 10. 

8 See Luke xxii. 31, 32; compare verse 61; John xxi. 15-17; and Mattbiw 
xiv. 30, 31. 

•» Mark xvi 7 ; compare John xx. 2-6. 



470 RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 

scene of the vision ; whereas, as we shall presently see, all 
these three traits are of much later origin. 

Paul's statement is irreconcilable with the tradition pre- 
served in the Gospels in other points besides the question 
of priority between Peter and the Marys. We will therefore 
simply give the Gospel tradition now, without further refei - 
ence to Paul's statement, and without venturing at present to 
pronounce decisively in favor of the latter as compared with 
the primitive nucleus of the former. The later traditions in 
the Gospels have little value. 

Of course it needs the utmost circumspection to separate 
this primitive tradition from the various accretions of later 
date ; but a careful comparison of the texts generally leads 
us to a definite conclusion. The impression we arrive at is 
that the first and perhaps the only appearance of the Christ 
took place in Galilee, a good many days after the death of 
Jesus. The Eleven, once more in their native land, had met 
upon one of the well-known mountains, and there they saw 
the glorified Master. But not all of them. Some of them 
still doubted, still distrusted themselves or the others who 
bowed down in transport and did reverence to him, as he 
appeared to them on high. 

We see at once how much there is to commend this nar- 
rative to our acceptance. It can hardly be doubted that im- 
mediately after the Master's death, if not as soon as he was 
taken prisoner, the disciples fled in haste from the hostile 
orthodoxy of Jerusalem to their own native land. 1 It was 
only here that they took breath and came to themselves again. 
It was here where they had gone in and out with him unceas- 
ingly, where every footpath and everj- hill- top, the fertile 
shores of the lake and the desolate wilderness, were alike 
enriched with treasured reminiscences of his wondrous and 
impressive preaching, of his private instruction never more to 
be forgotten, and his confidential intercourse with his chosen 
ones ; it was here where the fair days gone by, and the noble 
yet winning personality which shone through all their memo- 
lies, rose up so vividly before their minds ; it was here that 
they felt the conviction gradually, not suddenly, sink deep 
into their souls that it was impossible he had deceived him- 
self and them, impossible that God had suffered him to fail. 
Had he not himself foreseen the end before it came, yet 

i Sec pj, 419, 420 ; and Matthew xxvi. 32, xxviii. 7 (Mark xir. 28, xvi 7> 



REStmUECTlON OF JESUS. 471 

without losmg either faith or hope? And at the thought 
their faith and hope revived. Perhaps if we had been told 
that they saw him on the Sunday morning after his death, 
for instance, we might feel that the time was too short to 
allow all these influences to have their full effect. But this 
is not what we are told. The very fact that it was in Galilee 
the} r saw him is itself a proof that ample time intervened to 
admit of the power of recollection bringing them completely 
under the Master's influence again. The uniform tradition as 
to the third day refers to the time of his leaving the realms 
of death for heaven, not to that of his appearance to his 
friends. It is perhaps an inference from Scripture, and per- 
haps grew out of an expression used b} r Jesus himself, but in 
either case it is probably due to the misunderstanding of a 
proverbial expression. 1 

For the rest, it is hardly necessary, after all that we have 
said, to point out that when once the faith of the disciples was 
restored, it must necessaril}' take the form of the belief in the 
Master's resurrection or glorified existence ; and that it is, 
to say the least of it,' exceedingly comprehensible that some 
of them in a state of transport should have seen him. That 
some of them were in doubt and were only subsequently swept 
down the stream of general conviction appears to us a genuine 
historical trait, and it never quite disappears from the later 
stories. 2 Finally, we may observe that the provisional as- 
sumption of Jesus into heaven, where he would at once re- 
ceive from God the office of Messiah in anticipation of his 
return to earth, was needed to satisf} 7 the demand of the dis- 
ciples for their Master's complete restoration from the shame 
of his death upon the cross. 8 

Their joyful certainty that Jesus was now exalted to his 
kingly rank found utterance in the words which they put 
into his mouth; first the declaration, "To me is given all 
pow T er in heaven and upon earth ; " then the command, " Go 
forth to make all peoples nry disciples, baptizing them into 
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Spirit ; " and finally the promise, "Lo! Iara with 30U in your 
labor, da} T b} T da} r , till I return to crown }'ou." A later tradi- 
tion, preserved in the spurious conclusion of Mark, 4 repre- 
sents Jesus as appearing to the disciples, when assembled in 
a certain chamber, and uttering these three sayings in the 

1 See pp. 275, **28; Hosea vi. 2; Matthew xii. 40, et seq. 

2 Mark xvi. 11 13, 14; Luke xxiv. 11, 37, 41; John xx. 27. 
8 Acts 1:. 36. 4 Mark xvi. 9-20- 



472 EESttiRECTtoisr of JEstrs. 

following form: "Go out into all the world to preach tho 
Gospel to every creature. And whoever believes and is bap- 
tized [that is to say, openly avows his faith] shall be saved, 
but whoever believes not shall be condemned, at the Messi- 
anic judgment. And miraculous powers shall alwa} T s wait on 
faith, such as the power to cast out devils in my name ; to 
speak in fresh tongues ; to take serpents in the hand ; to 
drink poison without being hurt ; to lay hands on the sick 
and heal them." The primitive symbolical significance of 
this promise still shines through the words ; * but here they 
are taken literally, after the manner of the Apocryphal 
Gospels. 2 

The command about baptism has gained such importance 
as to justify a moment's delay to consider it. That Jesus 
never directly enjoined the Twelve to call the heathen to a 
share in the privileges of the Golden Age is above all doubt ; 8 
and this saying must therefore be of comparatively late ori- 
gin, dating from a period at which the mission to the heathen 
was not onfy fully recognized, but even declared to have origi- 
nated with the Twelve. A moment's reflection makes it 
obvious that Jesus himself instituted no such ceremony as 
baptism to incorporate converted Jews and heathen into a 
community of future members of the kingdom of God, and if 
further evidence be wanted it is supplied by Paul. 4 On the 
other hand, the rise of such a practice in the community, 
perhaps at a very early period, is perfectly natural ; and so, 
too, the much later custom of baptizing the infant children 
of Christians, though not even remotely contemplated in the 
injunction we are now considering, is easy to understand, and 
enlists our perfect sympathy. Baptism into the name of God 
the Father, Jesus Christ the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit, 
means baptism into the confession of or faith in these three, 
and is a short epitome of Christian doctrine of which Jesus 
certainly never dreamed ; nay, it is obvious from all accounts 
that, even in the apostolic age, it was as } T et quite unknown ; 5 
and the still later age which drew up the words by no means 
intended them as a baptismal formula, but rather as a state- 
ment of the conditions of admission into the community. In 
making the utterance of these words, instead of the imposi- 

i See Luke x. 19. 

2 Acts v. 16, viii. 7, xvi. 18, ii. 4, x. 46, xix. 6, xxviii. 5, 8. 

3 See pp. 293, 294; Galatians ii. 7-9; Acts x., xi. 

4 1 Corinthians i. 17. 

5 Acts ii. 38, viii. 16, x. 48, xix. 5; Romans vi, 3; 1 Corinthians i. 13, 15; 
Galatians iii. 27. 



RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 473 

tion of these conditions, the first act of admission into the 
community of Christ, the Church has confounded words with 
things. In a word, the phenomenon we are now considering 
ib compounded of a remarkable perversion of a Biblical phrase 
and an expression of the religious sense of Christendom, 
wlu'sh is equally simple and deserving of respect. 

In general we may be pretty sure that the oldest tradition, 
whether preserved in the Epistle to the Corinthians or in 
Matthew, knew nothing of any words pronounced by the 
risen Christ when he appeared. All these belong to the 
later transformations of the story, and form but one of many 
deviations and accretions. In fact, the original story is 
gradually disguised past all recognition. The appearances 
of Jesus are transferred to Jerusalem, obviously with the 
view of making the scene of the Messiah's defeat that of his 
restoration and triumph also ; the}' are placed upon the third 
day, as taking place while Jesus passed on high from the 
shadow-land ; they are robbed of their true character and 
become more and more material, after the general manner of 
legends. A variety of special occasions, circumstances, and 
sayings were from time to time added, unconsciously or by 
design, till the whole was expanded into a second life upon 
earth of several weeks' duration. Setting the two or three 
divergent accounts side by side as we go along, let us listen 
to the story ! 

The compulsory rest of the Sabbath was over. Before the 
Saturday night was gone (or early on Sunday morning) the 
two Marys (with or without Salome, or Salome and Johanna 
and others) went through one of the city gates to visit the 
tomb, to sit once more * in mournful contemplation by the 
cave in which so much that was dear to them lay buried, or 
to bear the corpse from its resting place and embalm it with 
spices and balsam that the}' had bought as soon as ever the 
Sabbath closed (or had provided just before it began) . If 
the}* cherished such a purpose as this they remembered anx- 
iously upon the way that they had no one with them who 
could roll away the heavy stone that stood at the entrance 
of the cave. But their anxiety was groundless; for when 
they looked they found that the stone was moved away 
already. Then they went in, and there to the right they saw 
a young man sitting in a long white robe (or two men in 
shining garments) who said to them, in their bewilderment 
i See p. 460. 



474 RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 

and terror, ' Be not afraid! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, 
who was crucified. He is not here ! He has risen ! Come 
and see the place where they laid him ! Now make all speed 
and go to his disciples, and above all to Peter, and tell them 
that he will go before } t ou to Galilee, where you will see him, 
as he told } t ou." In one of the accounts the words are 
expanded thus : " Why look for the living among the dead? 
Remember how, when he was still in Galilee, he told } T ou 
that the Son of Man must be given up into the power of the 
heathen and be crucified, and must rise again on the third 
day." Then, it is added, they remembered the words that 
he had spoken. Here Galilee, as the appointed place of 
meeting, has dropped out. 

With their feet winged with terror, but also with great joy, 
they hurried from the cave to take the news to the disciples 
(or according to another account thej T were too much over- 
come to sa}' a word to an} r one ; or according to a third, they 
told it all to the Apostles and the other disciples who only 
thought it an idle tale). And Peter ran to the sepulchre, 
and, stooping down, saw the shrouding clothes lying there, 
and went home full of amazement. 

It is quite superfluous to analyze this story, the improb- 
abilities of which we can see growing as it were before our 
very e} T es. Compare, for instance, the simple visit to the 
tomb recorded by Matthew, with the impossible embalming 
of a mutilated corpse six-and-thirty hours after death, sug- 
gested by Mark and Luke. 1 Only a single word about the 
empty grave. This trait undoubtedly belongs to the later 
tradition. But it has been asked : When the Apostles had 
seen Christ, would the} r not go to Jerusalem to make sure 
whether the Master had realty left his grave? Not at all. 
It would never occur to them. The appearance of Christ 
would itself fill them with a joyful certainty. And such an 
examination of the sepulchre would be revolting to all the 
feelings of the age, to say nothing of the fact that the body 
would no longer be capable of recognition. And above all 
their belief in the resurrection of Jesus, like the belief of 
Paul subsequently, stood in no immediate connection with 
the condition of his mortal bod} T . So too when Herod feared 
that John had risen again, he never dreamed of ordering a 
search to ascertain whether the head and body of his victim 
were still lying where the}' had been buried. The legend of 
the empty grave rose up either to confute those who denied 

i See p. 459. 



RESURRECTION OF JESLS. 47.1 

ine resurrection of Jesus by a palpable proof, 1 or else under 
the influence of the section of Jewish-Christians who thought 
that at the resurrection the bodies in the graves would come 
to life again ; 2 in either case it is one of the indications of 
the increasingly material conception gradually formed of the 
resurrection. 

It was subsequently said that the two Marys, as the}' hast- 
ened from the grave to bear the angels' message to the dis- 
ciples, met Jesus, who greeted them, and when the}' fell 
down and embraced his feet said to them, "Be not afraid ; 
go and tell it to my brothers [the Apostles] , that they may 
go to Galilee. There they will see me ! " This story evi- 
dently forms a transition. The real revelation upon which 
the stress is laid still takes place in Galilee ; but here, for 
the first time, a preliminary revelation is vouchsafed in Jeru- 
salem, and that apparently between the resurrection and the 
ascension. Such, at any rate, is the intention of the follow- 
ing story, of still later origin and of very obvious purport : 

The disciples were together, speaking of their faith and 
doubt, their hope and fear, when suddenly Jesus himself 
stood among them, with a greeting of peace upon his lips. 
They were in terror and alarm, thinking they saw a ghost : 
but he said, "Why are you dismayed, and why are you in 
doubt ? Look at my hands and feet, for it is I myself. 
Touch me and see ; for a spirit has no flesh and bones, as 
you can see I have." And now they could not believe it for 
joy, and were still lost in wonder ; but he said, " Have you 
nothing to eat here?" upon which they gave him some 
broiled fish and a piece of honeycomb, which he ate before 
their eyes. 

Then he said : " So now all that I told you before we were 
parted has come to pass ; namely, that every thing written 
concerning me in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms 
must be fulfilled." Then he made them understand the true 
meaning of the Scripture, and said : " Thus it is written that 
the Christ must suffer and rise from the dead on the third 
day ; and that, in the proclamation of his exaltation and re- 
turn, repentance and the forgiveness of sins must be preached 
to all peoples, beginning with Jerusalem. And this preach- 
ing is your task. And behold I make the gift which my 
Father promised come down upon you ! Do you then remain 
in the city till you are girt with power from above." 

i See pp. 479, 480. 

2 See Matthew xxii. 28, xxvii. 52, 64 : John v. 28, 29. 



£76 RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 

Then he led them out to the road to Bethany. There he 
raised his hands and blessed them ; and, as he blessed them, 
he passed away and was taken up into heaven. Then they 
bowed down to earth, and returned to Jerusalem filled with 
joy that he was glorified ; and there they remained continu- 
ally in the temple, praising and blessing God. 

The meaning of this story may be gathered from the closing 
scene. It represents Jesus as appearing to his friends when 
passing from the shadow-land to the abode of God. We must 
therefore place it on the third day, — the Sunday, — and prob- 
ably in the morning, not long after the resurrection ; for the 
interview itself, including the explanation of the Scripture, 
would occupy some hours, and it must have been over before 
evening, since the Evangelist can hardly intend to represent 
the Master as leading out his disciples, and himself going up 
on high, in the darkness of the night. We make this remark 
because, when w T e read the last chapter of Luke straight 
through, the insertion of the story of the travellers to Emmaus 
makes it appear as if all these events took place in the depth 
of night. In other respects the second part of our story is 
not without value ; but the introduction, with its wounds in 
the hands and feet, its flesh and bone, its fish and honeycomb, 
is an attempt to give a palpable and grossly material proof 
of the resurrection of Jesus. Thus the original conception 
is obliterated, every thing that could remind us of a vision 
has disappeared, and there is not a trace of the supersensual 
character which would naturally have marked all intercourse 
with a glorified one. 

Presently the round number of forty days was fixed upon 
as the period during which the risen Master remained on 
earth, so as to allow for all the appearances mentioned by 
tradition taking place before the ascension. During this 
period it is expressly said that he ate and drank with his 
friends ! We are further told in the Acts that during these 
days he gave his disciples absolute proof of his continued ex- 
istence, and spoke to them about the kingdom of God. He 
told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what 
God had promised them by his mouth ; for, in contrast with 
John's baptism of water, they should soon receive the baptism 
of the spirit. The disciples asked, ''Master! has the time 
now come for you to restore to Israel its independence, power, 
and gloiy, such as it had in the age of David and Solomon?" 
" It is not given you to know the time and opportunity which 
the Father has reserved to himself," was the reply ; " but you 



RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 477 

shall be strengthened when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, 
and shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judrea and 
Samaria, even to the ends of the earth." While he thus 
spoke he was taken up on high before their eyes, and a cloud 
enveloped him and carried him away out of their sight. As 
they were still gazing into heaven where he disappeared, two 
figures robed in white stood by them and said : "Ye men of 
Galilee, why stand and gaze into the heavens? This Jesus, 
who has been taken up from you on high, shall come back in 
the same manner as ye have seen him go." Then the Eleven 
went back from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem, and re- 
mained in their upper chamber, of one mind with each other, 
persevering in prayer, together with certain women and the 
mother and brothers of Jesus. 

This isolated and very late tradition is out of harmony with 
all the earliest accounts, which have nothing to tell us of a 
separate ascension ; nor does it agree with the narrative in 
Luke, the only other passage in which the ascension is spoken 
of. It is on the strength of this tradition that the Church 
observes the Thursday, forty (thirty-nine) days after Easter 
S unda}', as Ascension Day ; but it does not appear that this 
tradition was commonly accepted in the second century, for 
in the Epistle of Barnabas * we read : ' ' We [Christians] 
celebrate [not the seventh day as the Jews do but] the eighth 
[that is the first] da}* with thankful joy, as the da}' on which 
Jesus rose from the regions of the dead, revealed himself to 
his friends, and ascended to heaven." 

The importance of the subject has induced us to go in some 
detail into all these later and utterly unhistorical elaborations 
and perversions of the apostolic faith in the resurrection ; and 
we have therefore fallen into some danger of losing sight of 
the real religious meaning and the original significance of that 
faith itself. We must therefore once more call to mind that, 
under the conceptions of the universe and the religious doc 
trines current at the time, this idea of Jesus rising out of the 
realm of shades was the necessary form, and nothing but the 
form, under which the Apostles expressed their moral certainty 
that their Master lived and had been exalted. It was this 
certainty itself, — which is ours as much as it was theirs, — 
that forms the essence aud the glory of their faith. Above 
all, we must never forget what a triumph won by Jesus over 
the prejudices of his disciples' hearts this belief represented 
1 See p. 22. 



478 RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 

It shows that he had so impressed them with his unequalled 
moral greatness and glory as to make tliem say : ' ' Though 
dead, he cannot be a lifeless shade ; he must still live, although 
alone of all that ever died. The realm of shades cannot retain 
him captive ; and until the time shall come for him to mount 
his throne on earth, he must abide in heaven." Nay, think ! 
He died as a malefactor, as a disgrace to humanity, renounced 
by God and man. His disciples' fairest hopes were anni- 
hilated, and they must throw away their faith in him. . . . 
And yet they could not ! Hardly had the} 7 recovered from the 
first bewilderment of that crushing blow when they felt and 
knew that they could not have been deceived in him ; that he 
must be the Lord of the Messianic kingdom, the hope of all 
the faithful, the blessed dispenser of God's most glorious 
gifts, — for he could be no less ! For the shame of the cross 
God had amply compensated him with the gloiy of heaven ; 
and what the unbelief of his nation had hitherto prevented 
him from doing and being, he would ere long accomplish and 
make plain. For by him and by no other must the Golden 
Age most surely come. Nay, so mighty was his influence, 
even after his death, that in moments of holy transport his 
disciples even saw him. Truly, if we may argue from the 
effect to the cause, from the impression Jesus made to his own 
personalit}', we are filled with wondering reverence and admi- 
ration to think what he must have been ! How much higher 
the tribute we pay to Jesus by thus explaining the belief 
in his resurrection, than by wasting our strength in the 
hopeless effort to prop up the belief that his body came back 
to life and left its grave on the third day ! Were it only at 
the price of such a miracle that his disciples could regain 
their faith, our lofty estimate of his power over them, of his 
moral influence and his moral force, of the personality from 
which they issued, would lose one of its great supports. 

Here then at the close we may speak, as we could not 
speak at first, of the "resurrection" of Jesus, — using the 
word as he himself employed it, to signify his triumph. 
There is still one story of the resurrection which we have not 
given, and which stands in no connection with the rest. In 
its present form it is a very late tradition, } T et it strikes us as 
setting forth in emblematic guise the triumph of Jesus over 
the very powers which had trampled him in the dust. Let us 
listen to it : — 

Hardly had the Saturday morning broken when a numerous 
deputation of high priests and Pharisees again begged audience 



RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 479 

of the procurator. What makes them so restlessly uneasy? 
Have they not just averted the dangers which were threaten- 
ing their religion and their people ? Have the}' not established 
their own influence and authority more firmly than ever? Is 
not their enemy crushed for ever? The evening before, their 
hearts were light and the} T held their least in joyful triumph. 
But dread forebodings rose once more at night, and banished 
sleep, — forebodings that some way, they knew not how, the 
Nazarene would hold his own against them yet. But counsel 
comes b}' night, and they soon decided what to do. And this 
was wiry the early morning found them at the palace of the 
Roman. They were at once admitted, and explained their 
fear and their request as follows: "Will it please you, we 
have remembered that this deceiver, when he was alive, said, 
' After three days I shall rise again.' Give orders then that 
the grave be guarded for three da}'s, or may be his disciples 
will come and steal him away and then saj' to the people, 
' He is risen from the dead.' And then the last deceit would 
be worse than the first." 

With unhesitating alacrity Pilate granted the request. " A 
sufficient watch is at your service. Guard the grave as se- 
curely as }'ou may." They thanked him and retired. Then 
they hastened to their work. The}' placed a strip of linen 
across the stone at the entrance of the tomb, and secured it 
at both ends with cla}- bearing the impress of their seal. 
Surely no one would dare to break it ! Then they left the 
watch with strict injunctions to vigilance, — injunctions which 
relieved their own minds, though the admirable discipline of 
the Roman s} T stem rendered them quite superfluous. Surely 
they might now be perfectly at rest ! 

The first pale gleam of the third morning was breaking 
from the east ; the guards were standing at the entrance of 
the cave, — when suddenly the earth began to rock and trem- 
ble ! Is that a flash of lightning shooting down from heaven ? 
Ah, no ! It is an angel of the Lord, whose appearance shines 
like the fire of heaven, and whose garments glitter like snow. 
With a touch of his finger he rolls back the stone from the 
mouth of the tomb and seats himself upon it as his throne. 
There is the seal all broken ! There are the sentries, motion- 
less and powerless in their terror, paralyzed with apprehen- 
sion, without power of speech or thought, gazing with ashy 
faces on the apparition ! No sooner had they recovered the 
Use of their limbs than they fled for their very lives to Jeru- 
salem to those wl/o had given them their charge. The San- 



480 RESURRECTION OF JESUS. 

hedrim assembled in utter consternation. The case seemed 
hopeless ; but these high priests and eiders were never at a 
loss. They gave the soldiers a great sum of money and said, 
' ' Spread it about that his disciples came and stole him away 
while you were asleep. Should the procurator hear about it, 
we will find means of appeasing him, and you have no need 
to fear." The soldiers took the money and repeated their 
lesson to every one they could get hold of. And that is the 
origin of the tying story of the theft. 

"Was such a foolish report really circulated among the Jews ? 
In an} T case this story, which is worked out elaborately in the 
"Gospel of Nicodemus," is quite absurd. Is it likely that 
the enemies of Jesus would have heard a prophecy of his 
rising again when his very friends never dreamed of it for a 
moment, and when he had never once spoken of his "resur- 
rection " in public ? Is not the conduct here ascribed to the 
councillors and the soldiers — the latter of whom would have 
needlessly exposed themselves to the heaviest punishment — 
so clumsy and childish as to be impossible ? But once set 
aside these difficulties and accept the picture as emblematic, 
and how fine and true its strokes appear ! The powers of 
Church and State have combined against the Nazarene and 
brought him to his fall. On the one side the high priests and 
Pharisees defending the Law, the temple, and last, not least, 
their own authority and influence, against the sacrilegious 
blows of this seducer of the people ; on the other side, the 
procurator, who cherishes no personal hostility to him, but 
overcomes his own indifferent toleration, and sacrifices the 
Nazarene in the interests of order. The new religious move- 
ment is crushed for ever by this combination. Both Church 
and State combine to keep it down. They take measures 
which cannot fail. The one puts its seal upon the stone, the 
other sets its watch before the grave, — in vain ! As by the 
finger of God the seal is broken and the watch is smitten down. 
Jesus stands up ! Though hurled to the ground, he rises 
again ; his momentary defeat was but a step to his abiding 
triumph. The alliance of ecclesiastical and civil authorities 
is powerless against the truth, against the kingdom of God, 
against the Christ. The triumph is his ! 

In the following pages we shall trace the history of this 
triumph in the establishment of the apostolic community and 
the preaching of the gospel to the heathen. This triumph 
has its witnesses in every age, in our age, in our hearts, 
whenever the principles of Jesus vanquish the obstinate re- 



COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 481 

sistance of routine and prejudice, of impurity and selfishness ; 
whenever his ideal conquers the commonplace reality. Of 
this triumph every Easter that Christians observe is the grate- 
ful record and the joyful promise. 

In this, the truest sense, " Christ is arisen" indeed ! 



Chapter II. 

THE COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 

Acts I. 15- V., XII. 1-23.1 

A VEIL of obscurity hangs over the short period which 
separates the death of Jesus from the work of Paul. 
Only two facts shine through it. Of the first we have al- 
read} T spoken, and its significance will become still clearer 
presently. It is that the followers of Jesus regained their 
faith in his Messianic dignity, — which faith took the form of a 
belief that he had risen from the regions of the dead, and had 
been exalted to heaven, whence he would soon return. The 
second fact which now demands our attention is that a com- 
munity of believers was formed at Jerusalem, and had its 
branches in other parts of the Hoh* Land. But with regard 
to this matter our curiosity is rather excited than satisfied ; 
for the accounts we possess are very meagre, and at the 
same time far from trustworthy ; and since we have no means 
of controlling them, we must use all the greater caution in 
accepting what they tell us. Not only is the length of the 
period in question unknown ; not only are we left completely 
in the dark as to many details, — but even the great facts and 
the general course of events are far from clear. We are, 
therefore, driven to suppositions which we cannot really 
substantiate, and of which we must consequently be very 
sparing. 

The first question that forces itself upon us is, How came 
the disciples of Jesus to establish themselves at Jerusalem ? 
It is true that we need not suppose any collective emigration 
on a large scale to have taken place ; but nevertheless it is 
true that at a certain period, not long after the Master's 
death, a certain number of disciples, whose example was 

1 Matthew xxvii. 3-10 
VOL. III. 21 



482 COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 

soon followed by others, felt it their dut3 T to leave their be- 
loved and entrancing country, their nearest relatives, and 
their several callings, and go and settle in the hostile capital. 
Unquestionably this movement was made with a view to the 
establishment of the kingdom of God at the approaching re- 
turn of the Christ. "The City of the Lord" was the nat- 
ural centre of the glories of this future age ; and moreover 
Jesus himself had made it the scene of his last labors, and 
of that sublime effort frustrated, alas ! by the unbelief of the 
people. 1 But a step that required such courage and involved 
such sacrifices 2 as the removal to Jerusalem did would hardly 
be undertaken except on some definite occasion and with 
some definite object. As to the occasion we cannot find even 
a hint in the book of Acts, which never lets the Apostles return 
to Galilee at all. 3 Their object was probably something more 
than to wait at Jerusalem in longing for the Messiah ; it was 
to prepare for and if possible hasten his return by taking up 
his work, by preaching the kingdom of God to Israel :n a 
city which might well be deemed the nation's heart. 

We find the number of the disciples given as about one 
hundred and twenty souls ; but this figure raises our suspicion 
by being just ten times the number of the tribes and of the 
Apostles, and it is rendered still more doubtful by the fact 
that we have alread}' heard of five hundred brethren in the 
Epistle to the Corinthians. The statement that the mother 
and brothers of Jesus were among the believers approves 
itself more readily to our acceptance, for the Epistle just re- 
ferred to mentions that the Christ appeared to James, who 
was probably the head of the family. It would be extremely 
interesting to know when and how their disbelief was over- 
come ; 4 for we must take the vision not as the cause but as 
the result of James's faith. But our search for further light 
on this point is fruitless. 

The first step which the band of disciples took, before the 
outside world knew any thing of its existence, is said to have 
been the selection of an Apostle to take the place of Judas. 
Of course the traitor had lost his place among the Twelve for 
ever ; but bej^ond that we are told that the divine vengeance 
had already fallen upon him. Various traditions were cur- 
rent on this point. In the first place we hear that within 
a few hours of the consummation of his crime, when he saw 
his Master condemned to death by the Sanhedrim and handed 

1 See pp. 326, 327. 2 See pp. 345, 331, 187 f£. 

« See p. 476. 4 Compare pp. 237- 241. 



COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 483 

ovei to the Roman governor, he came to himself. He saw 
(too late, alas!) the enormity of his crime, and could think 
of nothing but returning to the Sanhedrim — as if that would 
avail! — and giving them hack the thirty shekels, the price 
of blood, which burned in his hands. "I have sinned/' he 
cried, " in giving up an innocent man to death ! " But thej* 
would not take the money back ; and answered chyly, " That 
is your affair, not ours ! " Then the wretched man fell a pre}' 
to despair. He rushed into the temple, flung the coins upon 
the floor, went out and hanged himself. The h'gk priests, as 
scrupulous as ever, considered what they could do with the 
money. As the price of blood, it could not be thrown into 
the treasury. 1 Finalh T they determined to purchase the Pot- 
ter's Field with it, and make it a burial place for strangers. 
Hence the name Hakelclama, or Blood-acre, was given to this 
field, which la} T south of Sion, in the valle} T of Hinnoin. 2 

Another legend, embodied in the account of the selection 
of a new Apostle, brings this same burial ground into con- 
nection with Judas in an equally arbitrary, though quite a 
different manner. According* to this version he had bought 
a piece of land for the price of his treacheiy, and had sub- 
sequently come to a miserable end there, though not by his 
own hand. He had fallen down, his bowels had burst asun- 
der, and his blood, that streamed over his newly-acquired pos- 
session, gave it the name it subsequently bore. A third 
tradition, not contained in the Bible, told how the wretched 
man was tortured by a fearful dropsy ; how his bod} T swelled 
until at last a cart could easily pass through a space too nar- 
row for him to go through ; and how, after nameless agonies, 
he died, stock blind, whether crushed by a cart, or a loath- 
some victim of disease. 

We feel at once that these stories are without historical 
foundation, though, for the honor of humanit}^, we would 
willingly accept as true the account of Judas's repentance. 
The general purport of the stories is determined b} T the Jew- 
ish belief in retribution, while the details are furnished by 
misapplied passages of the Old Testament, — the story of 
Ahithophel, who betrayed David ; 3 the prophecies of the 
earliest Zechariah 4 (not Jeremiah, as the first Evangelist 
sa}-s) ; 6 and above all the cursing psalms, one of which 
speaks of a snare, a desej ted inheritance, and darkened 

i See p. 394. 2 See Map IV. 

« See vol. ii. p. 49. ■* See pp. 410, 411. 

6 Matthew xxvii. 9. 



484 COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 

eyes ; * another of an early death, deposition from a post 01 
honor, and a curse that penetrates like water into the enemy's 
bowels. 2 As a matter of fact, we are wholly ignorant as to 
what befell Judas. 

Let us return then to the faithful disciples at Jerusalem 
We are told that Peter stood up one da} T among the brethren, 
who were about a hundred and twenty in number, and after 
showing that the Scripture foretold the fearful fate of the 
betra} T er, and that another should take his place, urged the 
appointment of a successor. The choice must fall on one 
who, with the Twelve, had been a faithful and steadfast fol- 
lower of Jesus from the baptism of John to the ascension of 
the Master ; one who might join the elder Apostles in bearing 
testimon}^ to the resurrection of Jesus. Then the assembly 
selected two of its members who fully complied with all the 
conditions laid down, and whose spirit and power fitted them 
for so sublime a task. The} T were Joseph, the son of Sabbas, 
surnamed "the just," and Matthias. The choice between 
these two they- determined to leave to the Omniscient, and so 
had recourse to lots. After offering a prayer to God, the 
knower of hearts, that he would show them whom he had 
chosen to take the place of the castaway, they drew a lot for 
each of the two ; and the result was that Matthias was re- 
ceived into the apostolic circle. 

The Apostolate is here represented as a definite office of 
superintendence conferred on a certain number of men, who 
form a close college, and are the only qualified witnesses 
to the resurrection of Jesus ; and this may well lead us to 
suspect that the whole stoiy is invented, 3 w T ith the spe- 
cific purpose of showing that there was no vacancy for Paul 
in the college, and that moreover he was entirely incompetent 
and unsuited for the post of an Apostle, inasmuch as he had 
not been a follower of Jesus during his public ministiy. If 
this is realty what the story means, then the writer of Acts 
must have simply accepted the tradition without understand- 
ing its drift. In itself, however, apart from the legend of 
Judas and the citation of texts connected with it ; apart from 
the whole discourse of Peter, the fictitious character of which 
is palpable at the first glance, 4 — apart, in a word, from all the 
accessories, it is not impossible that the number of twelve was 
again completed by the choice of Matthias ; and a certain 
amount of probability is given to the supposition by the fact 

1 Psalm lxix. 22 (Matthew xxvii. 5), 25 (Acts i. 18-20), 23. 

2 Psalm cix. 8, 18. 3 See p. 180. 4 Acts i. 18, 19- 



COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 485 

uhat the first Epistle to the Corinthians * and the book of Rev- 
elation 2 both speak of " the Twelve," notwithstanding that 
Judas had fallen away. This measure, if really taken, dis- 
plays a scrupulous anxiety to keep in harmony with the num- 
ber of the tribes, and evinces the Jewish narrowness, which 
regarded the blessings of the kingdom of God as reserved ex- 
clusively for Israel ; but it also shows a settled determination, 
which earns our admiration by the courage and fidelity it re- 
veals, of standing up before the people of the Lord, without 
loss of time, as witnesses to the Messiah, who was now ex- 
alted in heaven and would soon return in his glory. 

When and how did the Apostles begin their preaching of 
Jesus, the Messiah, and of his kingdom? The following 
story is given us in answer : — 

The day of Pentecost, the harvest thanksgiving of the Jews, 
had come. The disciples were together in their usual place 
of assembly, in the morning, when suddenly a sound was 
heard from heaven, as of a mighty rushing wind, and all the 
house re-echoed, while at the same time the}' saw tongues, as 
if of fire, which split up and came down on each of them. 
At the same moment that which the wind and fire did but 
represent as symbols came itself to pass. The Holy Spirit 
came down upon them, and for a time they were utterly car- 
ried away by it ; and, as indicated by those forms upon their 
heads, began to speak with other tongues, according as the 
Spirit gave them utterance. 

This miracle made a deep impression. Crowds of Jews 
were collected to the spot, and among them were foreigners 
from all the nations upon the earth, whose zeal had brought 
them away from their heathen birthplaces to settle in the 
City of the Temple. Picture their amazement when each one 
of them (fifteen nations are enumerated) recognized his own 
native language in the rapturous utterances of these men ! 
They asked in consternation, "Are not all the speakers men 
of Galilee ? Then how comes it that each one of us hears 
them rehearse God's mighty deeds in his own native lan- 
guage?" But while some were lost in amazement and per- 
plexity, wondering what this could mean, others mocked the 
inspiration of the disciples and said : k ' They are full of sweet 
wine ! " 

Did these reckless taunts reach the disciples and bring 
them to themselves ? At any rate they rose ; and Peter, as 
1 1 Corinthians xv. 5. 2 Revelation xxi. 14. 



486 COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 

their head and representative, solemnly began his first dis- 
course, amid perfect silence. They were not drunk, he ex- 
claimed, for who would drink before nine o'clock, the hour of 
morning pra}'er? But this that they had seen was the fulfil- 
ment of Joel's prophecy, 1 that before the coming of God's 
kingdom the Lord would pour out his spirit over young and 
old, men and women, after which terrible signs and wonders 
in heaven would follow, and then the day of judgment. Then 
there would be no salvation except in calling on the name of 
the Messiah. Now this Messiah, whose approach these signs 
had shown to be close at hand, was no other than Jesus of 
Nazareth. He had been marked out b}- God as filling this 
high rank b} T the miraculous powers given him ; and yet more 
by his resurrection, when Israel under God's will had given 
him up to the heathen to be crucified. This resurrection 
proved him to be the great son of David,' 2 upon whom his 
ancestor's thoughts were really fixed when he sang of his de- 
liverance from the realms of the dead and from corruption. 8 
And, lastly, this pouring out of the holy gift which God had 
promised proved be} T ond contradiction that Jesus was now the 
Messiah, pro vis ion all} 7 " exalted to God's right hand, in accord- 
ance again with a prophetic song of David. 4 

The assembled people were deeply impressed by this ad 
dress, and asked, in response to its appeal, what the}^ were to 
do. Upon which Peter resumed: " Repent and be baptized 
as believers in Jesus, the Messiah, for the remission of your 
sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For 
3 r ours is the Messianic kingdom with all its blessings, yours 
and your children's ; and all the heathen, who b} T God's grace 
shall be taken into Israel, shall share it with 3-011." Great 
was Peter's rejoicing ; for when he had once more earnestly 
admonished his hearers to separate themselves from their 
stiff-necked contemporaries, that the}- might not share their 
condemnation, no fewer than three thousand announced 
their conversion, and were baptized on that same day ! 

Well-grounded objections may be urged against the credi- 
bility of this account. The signs which accompany the lofty 
inspiration of the disciples betraj^ themselves at once as 
products of the imagination of the Christian communhYy. 
Conscious of possessing the Holy Spirit, conscious of owing 

1 Joel ii. 28-32 ; compare vol. ii. pp. 454, 455 

2 Psalm cxxxii. 11. 

8 Psalm xvi. 8-11; compare vol. i. p. 210. 
4 Psalm ex. 1. 



COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 487 

it to the risen Master, the community of Jesus imagined that 
the gift must have been imparted at some definite moment, 1 
whether at Pentecost, or, as another account would have it, 
on the still earlier occasion of one of the appearances of the 
Christ. 2 Round this conception the outward symbols of the 
manifestation would readily cluster. Nor is it strange that 
the first revelation or working of the Spirit should be made 
to consist in speaking with other tongues ; that is to sa} T , with 
other than the usual tongues, — with human tongues touched 
by God, in a burst of religious ecstas}\ This phenomenon, 
which is the counterpart of the ancient " prophesying," 3 is 
known to us from Paul's description 4 as an attempt to give 
utterance to religious transport, without using the under- 
standing, in broken sentences, incoherent exclamations, and 
inarticulate sounds ; sometimes it would take the form of 
exalted praise, which could only find expression in cries of 
joy and sighs. We also gather that the phenomenon ap- 
peared repeatedly in the apostolic communities, and that it 
was very highly esteemed. What more natural than that 
tradition should make it the first sign of life in the assembly 
of the faithful? We ma} T note in this connection that the 
Book of Acts mentions the phenomenon on several other 
occasions, and always to mark the beginning of a genuine 
and formal entrance into the Messianic community. 5 But in 
the passage we are now discussing this "speaking with 
tongues " is designedly represented as consisting in the use 
of all manner of foreign words, as a S}*mbol that the gospel 
was destined for all peoples. This brought the legend into 
agreement not only with a Jewish tradition, that when 
the voice of God proclaimed the Law from Mount Sinai it 
sounded as if the words were uttered in every language of the 
world, but also with the expectation that in the Messianic age 
the confusion of tongues and division of mankind that had 
reigned since the building of the tower of Babel would be 
superseded by the original unity of language and universal 
peace. Finally, the closing portions of the story seem no 
more historical than what precedes. Peter's discourse, like 
the other speeches in this book, is simply invented for him 
by the author in accordance with the usual custom of the 
time ; 6 nor can we well believe that his first discourse resulted 
in a conversion in mass and the baptism of three thousand 

1 Compare pp. 118, 119. 2 John xx. 22. 

3 See vol. i. p. 453. 4 1 Corinthians xii.-xiv. 

6 Acts x. 44 ff., xix. 1 ff., viii. 15 ff. 6 See pp. 23, 24. 



488 COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 

people in a single day. We shall observe the same exaggera- 
tion in stating numbers upon other occasions, when we shall 
hear of five thousand and afterwards of man}' tens of thou- 
sands of conversions. 1 

We need not even suppose that our story rests upon the 
reminiscence of any one particular fact, such as the common 
transport of the disciples spoken of as the appearance of the 
Christ to five hundred brethren. 2 The birth of the community 
of Jesus is buried in obscurity, and it ma} T very well have taken 
place at Jerusalem by gradual and imperceptible degrees. 
Afterwards, when the very natural desire to fix some special 
day for it arose, the feast of Pentecost presented itself as the 
first national festival after the fatal Passover ; and if that day 
had already come to be regarded as the commemoration of the 
giving of the Law, which it certainly was in later times, then 
as the festival of the old dispensation it would seem pre- 
eminently suitable for the introduction of the new. In a 
word, after all the reservations we have been obliged to make, 
we find very little of this story left unchallenged ; but we 
must not forget that this little is the kernel of the whole, — ■ 
the one fact of inestimable significance that a community of 
believers did actually spring up ; to which we may safely 
add that in its early j^outh this community already numbered 
among its characteristics those bursts of inspiration known as 
" speaking with tongues." 

But whether it began as a close community to which no one 
was admitted without solemn consecration, and how the prac- 
tice of baptism arose, we cannot tell. Jesus did not institute 
the ceremony in question. Some have supposed, though on 
insuificient grounds, that it was first introduced in the case 
of converted heathen, and therefore a good deal later than 
the time we are now discussing. If, on the other hand, it 
was really established at Jerusalem at an earlier period, and 
for the benefit of Jews who joined the community of the 
Messiah, then it was obviously borrowed from John. 3 In fact 
the whole work of the Twelve was an imitation of that of John, 
and bears testimony to the strength of his influence. Properly 
speaking the Apostles were not carrying on the work of Jesus, 
but that of his predecessor, — not only inasmuch as they 
plunged the future citizens of the kingdom of God beneath 
the purif3 T ing waters, but in the exclusive prominence they 
gave to the last judgment, and in their preaching of the 
speedy and sudden dawn of the Messianic age. 

1 Acts xxi. 20. 2 See pp. 467, 468. « See p. 104 



COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 489 

Now let us return for a moment to Peter's discourse. It is 
given us as a specimen of the primitive apostolic preaching, 
and as such it certainly deserves our confidence. The same 
ma}- be said of a second discourse, put into the mouth of 
Peter, which we shall present^ hear, and which resembles 
the first prett}- closely in its general purport and contents as 
well as in the occasion of its deliveiy and its handling of the 
subject. 1 Three points at once excite our observation. This 
preaching does not concern Jesus, the hero of faith, the friend 
of man, the noble rescuer of humanity, whose obedience and 
love culminated in his death upon the cross. Far from it ! 
It concerns Israel's Messiah, approved as the Messiah by his 
resurrection, in spite of his death upon the cross in shame. 
On the strength of Psalm ex., which Jesus himself, though 
with quite a different intention, had already applied to the 
Messiah,' 2 he was declared henceforth to be sitting "on the 
right hand of God" in heaven. Not only was this the high- 
est place of honor, but it assured him the widest power of 
protecting and blessing his friends and opposing and subduing 
his enemies during the initial establishment of his kingdom 
upon earth. Finally, here and everywhere the warp and weft 
of the apostolic teaching, which also forms the substance of 
several of the books of the New Testament, consists in the 
belief that the end of the world was now really and truly close 
at hand; that the "last days" had alread} T come; and that 
very soon Jesus would return from heaven, then for the first 
time coming in his true Messianic character. 

To that consummation the breathless longing of his friends 
was directed ; in that expectation the} T so toiled for him that 
nothing could terrhy or dishearten them. Little as they had 
understood their Master, they nevertheless clung to him 
faithfully, and bore enthusiastic witness to his exaltation. 
Amidst all their mistakes and all their narrowness, their faith 
and courage do them immortal honor. 

Be the how and the when what the}- may, a body of be- 
lievers in Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah shortly to be 
expected was, as a fact, established at Jerusalem, where it 
constantly increased. Its members, in after years at any 
rate, were known by the nickname of " Nazarenes," after 
the birthplace of their Messiah. We have a right, derived 
not only from the subsequent course of events, but from the 
very earliest accounts, to call this body of believers a com 

1 See pp. 494, 495. 2 See pp. 383, 384. 

21* 



490 COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 

munity. Let us see what is told us of its internal condition 
or communal life. 

The believers, so we read, displa3 T ed unflagging interest in 
the preaching of the Apostles and unremitting zeal in prayer 
for the coming of the Messianic kingdom. So far from cher- 
ishing an} T thought of separating themselves from their people, 
the}' went daily to the national sanctuar}" as one man ; but 
from the very first the}' were drawn b} T special ties to one an- 
other, were constantly together, and faithfully attended the 
common meals, — a custom which rose spontaneously out of 
their brotherly affection, and in its turn was admirably suited 
to keep it alive. Then as they ate together, — full of jo} T to 
think of the glorious future, but without intemperance or 
excess, — they commemorated their Master and his parting 
meal. The praise of God was upon their lips, the favor of 
all the people was their lot, and their numbers grew from day 
to clay. 

But the strongest proof that they were one in heart and 
soul was the community of goods the} T established. They had 
every thing in common, we are told repeatedly, and no one 
regarded his possessions as his own. They sold their lands 
and houses to divide the proceeds according to the necessities 
of each, and consequently none of them was ever in want ; for, 
without the least compulsion, all who possessed any property 
sold it of their own accord, and gave the whole price to the 
Apostles for them to divide as they thought fit. Special 
mention is made in this connection of a certain Joseph, be- 
cause of the significance his person afterwards acquired. He 
was a Levite, a native of the island of C} r prus ; and his re- 
markable eloquence gained him the name from the apostles 
of Barnabas, — that is, "son of exhortation," or properly 
" of prophecy." He sold a piece of land that he possessed, 
and brought the money to the Twelve for them to dispose of 
as they would. 

In contrast with this noble conduct, we are told of the 
action of a certain man named Ananias, and bis wife Sapphira. 
They had not wholly forsaken the world, but neither did they 
wish to seem backward in the eyes of the rest or to lose their 
future reward. 1 So they sold their land ; but Ananias, with 
the knowledge of his wife, kept back a part of the mone^y and 
brought the rest to the Apostles pretending it was the whole. 
Then Peter, instructed by the Holy Spirit and perceiving the 
attempted fraud, rebuked Ananias for his hypocrisy. He 
1 Compare pp. 108, 345. 



COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 491 

might have kept his land. No one- compelled him to part 
with it ; and if he chose to sell it he might have done what- 
evei he liked with the proceeds. But this hypocrisy was from 
the Evil One ; it was a lie directed not against men, but 
against the Holy Spirit that dwelt in the community and in 
the Apostles. Divine retribution was at hand. Hardly had 
Peter en^ed when the culprit sank at his feet, a corpse. 
Some of the younger brethren, most suited by their age for 
such a service, laid Ananias on a bier, carried him out, and 
buried him ; for in those days it was not usual to keep a 
corpse unburied longer than was absolutely necessary. But 
this scene did not close the appalling drama. About three 
hours afterward, Sapphira, not knowing what had taken place, 
came into the assembly of the people. There before Peter 
lay the sum of money brought by Ananias, still untouched. 
As Sapphira was looking round for her husband, Peter, point- 
ing with his finger to the coin, demanded sternly: "Is that 
the price for which you sold j-our land?" " It is," she an- 
swered unabashed. Then the sombre words of. doom passed 
Peter's lips : " Why have you conspired together to test the 
power of the Holy Spirit to detect your fraud? I hear the 
returning steps of those who have buried j'our husband, and 
now the same men shall carry you out also." At that word, 
she dropped to the ground and was no more ; while the young- 
men who had returned from the burial place, w r hich was out- 
side the city, entered at the very moment and found the same 
task awaiting them once more. The guilty pair were laid in 
the same tomb. How could such a signal judgment fail to 
make the profoundest impression upon the community and 
upon all the Jews that heard of it ! 

This legend is told to the glory of the youthful commu- 
nity whose wrongs were so terribly avenged, and still more 
to the honor of its leader, the Apostle, who was endowed 
with such dread powers from on high. But the fact is that, 
to say nothing of its impossibility, it ascribes distinctly 
immoral conduct to Peter, both in making him tempt Sap- 
phira to the lie instead of preventing her from telling it, and 
in making him twice exhibit a spirit of dire vengeance. Even 
the previous sketch of the life of the community, though not 
an invention, by no means deserves our implicit confidence. 
In the first place, the author, or the tradition he recorded, 
evidently gives us an ideal sketch ; and in itself this is no 
more than natural, — for Christianit}*, soon torn by quarrels 
and dissensions, and stained by worldliness and self-seeking, 



i92 COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 

fell under a delusion common alike to individuals and socw 
ties, 1 in looking back with yearning to the infancy of the 
faith as a time of innocence and of unqualified purit}^ and 
love. But the exaggeration of this sketch is more than in- 
voluntary. It is deliberate. The very form in which it 
is given bears the marks of conscious art ; for the life of the 
community is sketched twice in succession, in similar style, 
but with heightened colors on the second occasion, and each 
account is followed by a miracle, a persecution, and a tri- 
umph won by the Apostles. 2 Nor does the writer once 
trouble himself as to how it was possible for more than 
three thousand souls to assemble and take their meals to- 
gether ; and before long he is himself compelled to mention 
dissensions which sprang from differences of birth 3 or faith. 4 
So, too, in spite of his own assertion, that there was abso- 
lute communit} T of goods among the believers, and that in 
consequence none of them were in need, we presently find 
him mentioning exceptions to the rule ; not only in Ananias 
and Sapphira, but in a certain Mary who had a house of her 
own, which she had not sold, 5 to sa} r nothing of certain 
" poor" widows to whom a daily allowance was made, — not 
without some partiality. 6 

But in spite of all this, if we substitute a liberal munifi- 
cence for community of goods, we need not hesitate to accept 
the main features of the picture as true, and to indorse the 
testimoiry subsequently borne to the Christians by their ene- 
mies in a time of great persecutions : u See how they love 
one another ! " How could it be otherwise with the first 
commnnit}* of Jesus? Would not older and more recent dis- 
ciples alike be drawn toward one another and above all 
toward the Apostles? Would not the feeling that they 
shared a common life, a common hope, and a common dan- 
ger urge them cheerfully and liberally to perform the duties 
of brotherly affection? Would not many of them even sell 
some piece of property to enable them to supply the wants 
of needy brethren? Moreover such acts were fostered by 
the expectation that the world was soon coming to an end. 
Then no one would enjoy his earthly possessions more, but 
all these saciifices would be rewarded at the Messianic judg- 
ment. We may be sure, however, that not many rich or 
distinguished men belonged to the community ; and the fact 
that a few years afterwards we find many poor among the 

1 See vol. i. p. 52. ' 2 Acts ii. 42 ff., iv. 32 ff. 8 Acts vi. 1. 

* Acts xi. 2. 5 Acts xii. 12. 6 Acts vi. 1. 



COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 49c 

believers at Jerusalem need not in any way drive us to the 
supposition that an attempt had really been made to estab- 
lish an impossible community of goods. 

There is no room to doubt that the belief in the return of 
Jesus to establish the kingdom of God was the main charac- 
teristic of the community at Jerusalem, and in the eyes of the 
outside public it constituted its only reason for existence or 
principle of cohesion. We are also safe in asserting that the 
believers regularly observed their religious duties as Jews, 
frequently trod the courts of the temple, and in general ful- 
filled the precepts of the Law and tradition. How could 
they do otherwise in such an orthodox atmosphere ? Apart 
from that new life of love, with which the spirit of Jesus 
inspired them, there was nothing to distinguish them from 
their fellow-countrymen and believers, except that while 
man}* looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, they 
alone held that that Messiah would be Jesus of Nazareth. 
In all other respects they were Jews, both in the outer forms 
of religion and in their ideas and convictions. If we are jus- 
tified in regarding them as a separate sect at all, then they 
were certainly a sect of Jews. 

But this one point of faith that distinguished them from 
others involved a principle the consequences and bearings of 
which the}* did not yet in the least degree realize. A cruci- 
fied Messiah was a conception so directly contradictory of 
all religious prejudices that it must in time annihilate them. 
Jesus, though executed upon Golgotha, was yet the Messiah. 
Iji virtue of his resurrection? So it was said. But as a 
matter of fact it was in virtue of his moral and religious 
greatness, in virtue of the might of his spirit, in virtue of the 
truth he had revealed and the love he had displayed. The 
true grounds of his Messiahship must have been more and 
more clearly felt by many of his disciples ; and when felt 
they could not fail to transform or annul the whole Jewish 
scheme of life and of the world. At the very least, this 
belief in Jesus secured the preservation of his image with all 
its beautiful and sacred reminiscences, and of the words 
which interpreted his principles, — those might}*, life-giving, 
and renovating principles so little understood as yet. And 
when thus preserved and honored, his image and his words 
must force themselves at last into fullest recognition. 

From the very day of its institution at Pentecost, we are 
told, the community, and especially its leaders, enjoyed uni- 



494 COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 

versal respect. And well they might ; for the Apostles per- 
formed a profusion of signs and wonders. The following 
story serves as an illustration, and further records the first 
collision with the priestly authorities : — 

On a certain day Peter and John were going to the temple 
at about three o'clock in the afternoon, — the hour of evening 
pra} r er and sacrifice ; 1 and at the same time there was a man 
of about middle life carried to the same place. He had been 
a cripple from his birth, and was set down every day close 
by one of the entrances to the sanctuary known as the Beau- 
tiful Gate, to beg alms of those who came to the temple. As 
the two Apostles passed him he asked an alms. They turned 
their earnest gaze upon him, and Peter said, " Look at us ! " 
He looked fixedly, expecting them to give him something , 
and Peter continued, lt Silver and gold I have not, but what 
I have I give you : In the name of Jesus Christ the Naza- 
rene [that is to say, by virtue of my faith in him] , stand up 
and walk ! " On this he took him by the hand and raised 
him up, while at the same moment his feet and ankles re- 
ceived their strength. He stood and walked like other men, 
and went into the temple with his benefactors, leaping for 
joy and praising God ! Now when the people, who recog- 
nized him as the beggar of the Beautiful Gate, saw him walk- 
ing about, they were lost in amazement ; and since he still 
clung to the Apostles a great crowd gathered round them in 
the southern colonnade, known as Solomon's. Peter seized 
the opportunity of addressing the crowd. 

It was not by their own power or goodness, he said, that 
they had done this wonder. It was the God of the fathers 
who had wrought it to the glory of his servant Jesus, the Holy 
and Just One, who had been delivered b} T this same multitude 
to the Roman governor, and when he had determined to set 
him free had been denied and rejected, while a murderer had 
been preferred to him. But if they had slain the Prince of 
life, God had raised him up from the land of shades. It was 
to this that the Apostles bore witness ; and it was the power 
of this faith in his Messiahship which Jesus had given them 
that had completely restored the cripple before all their eyes. 
And now, since the people and their leaders had alike rejected 
Jesus because they did not know that he was the Messiah, 
and since God had thus fulfilled the predictions of all the 
prophets that his Anointed One must suffer, it remained for 
them to repent and be converted, that their sins might be 

l Compare pp. 140, 250. 



community at Jerusalem. 495 

blotted out. Then should come, after a time of woe and ter- 
ror, the season of refreshment, — the dawn of the Golden Age, 
— when Jesus should return from heaven. Thither he had 
been received for a time till God should send him as the Mes- 
siah, at the restoration of all things, 1 as foretold by Moses a 
and Samuel, and all their successors. And to them in par- 
ticular, since they might claim the prophets and God's cove- 
nant with Abraham 3 as their own, He had sent his servant 
first, with all the blessings that would follow on repentance. 

So spoke the two Apostles to the people ; but when the 
priests, the ruler of the temple-guard, and the Sadducees ap- 
proached, the}* were much disturbed by their preaching, espe- 
cially of the resurrection ; and accordingly they seized them, 
and threw them into prison, since it was now too late in the 
day to allow of the instantaneous trial prescribed by custom. 
Meanwhile, however, man}* of the hearers were already con- 
verted, and the community henceforth numbered about five 
thousand. The next day the Sanhedrim assembled, with 
Annas and Caiaphas, the high priests ; 4 and Peter and John, 
together with the former cripple, were brought before them. 
They were required to declare by what power or name (by the 
Evil One or by God) they had performed this cure. Then 
Peter, seized by the Holy Spirit, cried out in stirring words 
that if they were on their tri^l for the blessing they had con- 
ferred upon the unfortunate cripple, then all the councillors 
and all Israel with them must know that the wonder had been 
worked by the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, whom 
they had crucified, but whom God had raised again. He was 
the stone rejected by the builders, but made the corner-stone 
by God. 5 The promised blessings were to be looked for 
Trom him alone. There was no salvation except by faith 
in him ! 

The Sanhedrim was completely at a loss. What was the 
meaning of such confidence on the part of these unlettered 
laymen whom they now recognized as the companions of 
Jesus? And there stood the cripple beside them, whose re- 
storation could not be got rid of! They sent the prisoners 
out while they consulted together. The miracle was already 
the wonder of all the city, and could not possibly be denied. 
All they could do was to try to stop the matter going any 
further by forbidding their prisoners, under the sternest 
threats, to utter another word to any one about Jesus as the 

1 See p. ?25. 2 Deuteronomy xviii. 15 ff. 

* Genesis xxii. 18. 4 See p. 96. " & See p 390. 



496 COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 

Messiah. In vain ! Peter and John demanded whether it 
was right in the sight of God to obe}' them rather than Him, 
for it was a moral impossibility for them to keep silence. 
This provoked more violent threats than ever ; but the end 
of it was that the}' could find no excuse for punishing them, 
and had to release them for fear of the people, who glorified 
God with one voice for this great miracle. 

As soon as the Apostles were at liberty', they went to their 
friends and told them all that had taken place. Then they 
offered a fervent and united prayer to the Creator of all things. 
]Now that the prophecy of David, concerning opposition and 
enmity to the Lord's anointed, 1 had been fulfilled at Jerusa- 
lem ; now that tetrarch and procurator, heathen and Jew, had 
conspired against Jesus, — the3 r prayed that God might give 
them courage to preach in spite of all these threats, with 
power to work miracles in the name of Jesus. And in token 
that the prayer was heard, the whole place of assembly shook, 
the Holy Spirit seized them all again ; the}' came forward 
undismaj'ed, and continued to bear mighty witness to the 
resurrection of Jesus. 

A second persecution ran a similar course. After the divine 
judgment had fallen upon Ananias and Sapphira, the commu- 
nity was constantly augmented by whole troops of men and 
women, and the Apostles displayed miraculous powers with- 
out parallel. Here is a specimen of their mighty deeds. In 
Solomon's colonnade the believers assembled, one in heart 
with the Apostles ; all who had not joined the community 
stood respectfully aside, and the masses were evidently im- 
pressed with deepest awe. As the Apostles advanced to the 
colonnade, one might see sick people carried out along the 
way and laid on beds or mattresses by the side of the street, 
in the hope that Peter's shadow at least might fall upon them, 
for even that sufficed to heal them. And from the neighbor- 
ing places, too, they came with the sick and the possessed, and 
not one of them returned uncomforted. But the high priest 
and the other Sadducees could no longer endure to look on 
passively while the Apostles made such mighty progress, and 
accordingly they threw them into the city gaol. It was but 
labor lost ! In the night the angel of the Lord unbolted the 
prison doors and led them out, commanding them to resume 
the preaching of salvation to the people in the temple ; and 
this they did in the early hours of the morning. Meanwhile 
the high priest and the others had summoned the whole San- 

l Psalm ii. 1, 2. 



COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 497 

hcdrim and sent to the prison for the Apostles ; but the mes- 
senger returned alone and said: "The doors were firmly 
barred and bolted, and the sentries at their posts, but the 
prisoners were gone." We may well believe that the presi- 
dent, the captain of the temple-guard, and the high priests 
were at their wits' end now. At that very moment some one 
rushed in with the news that the veiy men whom they had 
thrown into prison were standing up and teaching in the tem- 
ple ! The captain and his men hastened to secure them and 
bring them before the Council ; but they used no violence, for 
fear they should be stoned by the people. There stood the 
Twelve before the Sanhedrim, while the high priest sternly 
cried : " We forbade you expressly to speak about your faith, 
and yet you have made it echo through Jerusalem, and are 
tiying to throw the responsibilhry of that man's execution 
upon us." Then Peter, in the name of all the rest, answered 
with undaunted firmness that they ought to obey God rather 
than men ; and it was God who had raised up Jesus, whom 
they had slain on the cross ; it was God who had exalted him 
as Prince and Saviour, to give repentance and forgiveness to 
Israel. " And we are his witnesses of these things," he con- 
cluded ; "and, moreover, the Holy Spirit, which God gives 
to all who obe3 T Him, shows that the}' are true." 

The members of the Sanhedrim waxed furious and were 
almost sentencing the Apostles to death, when one of them, 
a Pharisee of the name of Gamaliel, a teacher of the Law, 
held in high honor by all the people, stood up, ordered the 
accused to be removed, and then delivered his opinion, sup- 
ported by historical analogies. He advised his colleagues to 
pause before proceeding to violence ; for a bad cause was 
sure to collapse of itself. Thus a certain Theudas had arisen 
a short time back, with great pretensions, and had collected 
about four hundred followers. But he was killed, his follow- 
ers were scattered, and his pretensions came to nothing. 
Afterwards Judas, the Galilsean, had headed a revolt on oc- 
casion of the census ; 1 but he too was destroyed, and his 
followers dispersed. In the same wa}-, if this preaching was 
false doctrine, a mere human invention, it would fall to pieces 
of itself without the interference of the Sanhedrim. Violence 
was at best superfluous, and if by chance it should be a truth 
from God with which they had to do, then surely they must 
avoid all violent resistance, not only as vain presumption but 
as sinful fighting against God. 

i See pp. 4, 5, 6, 56, 89. 



498 COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 

The Sanhedrim listened to reason. The Apostles were 
called in, condemned to be scourged, once more forbidden to 
speak of the Nazarene, and then dismissed. Filled with jo}^ 
at having been counted wortlry to suffer ignominy for their 
Master's title, the}^ left the judgment hall and ceased not, 
day by day, in the temple and at home, to preach Jesus as 
the Messiah. 

In these two stories we can find little else than half inten- 
tional and half unconscious fiction. The miracles, which are 
so recklessly multiplied, are some of them superfluous, — such 
as the liberation of the Apostles by night, followed at once 
by their recapture ; and others, such as the cures effected by 
Peter's shadow, of the nature of magic. The helpless clum 
siness of the Jewish authorities, so sharply contrasting with 
the intrepid decision of the Apostles, sounds equally unhis- 
torical, and we cannot help exclaiming, " Wiry did not they 
believe, like the rest?" Indeed, at this rate Jerusalem with 
all its neighborhood would very soon have been cleared of 
sick people and of unbelievers alike ! All that we are at 
libert} T to accept as historical is that a collision with the au- 
thorities probably took place, though the whole drift of the 
stories that record it, together with all the details, appears in- 
credible. The writer's intention is clearly to glorify the com- 
munity at Jerusalem, especially the Apostles, and most of all 
Peter. This is why he makes the miracles take place as pub- 
licly as possible, and instantly acquire the utmost fame. A 
second object of the writer, or his authority, is to represent 
the Jewish people, especially the national or religious party, 
as at first distinctly favorable to the cause of Jesus. This is 
why we are so constantly, conspicuously, and emphatically 
assured that the masses reverenced, honored, and protected 
the believers and their chiefs, while none but the Sadducees 
persecuted them, and the Twelve found an advocate, not to 
say a deliverer, in the Pharisee Gamaliel. 

This Rabban Gamaliel I., the grandson of Hillel, and the 
renowned leader of the school of Jerusalem, who died in 
58 a.d., is known to us from other sources ; but he certainly 
never uttered this discourse, for it betra} T s a strong suspicion, 
to sa} T the least of it, that this preaching of the Christ was 
really of divine origin, and moreover it is a tissue of contra- 
dictions. Theudas and Judas were not put down without 
violence, so that their fate could not furnish an argument 
against interfering with the Apostles. The principle, "Let 
error work its way unchecked, and it will ruin itself," is one 



COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 499 

which cannot possibly be carried out ; and we shall soon see 
Paul, who is introduced to us as a disciple of Gamaliel, act 
in directest contradiction to his master's supposed advice. 
But the most conclusive fact of all is that this Theudas, of 
whom Gamaliel is made to speak, was a prophet, or popular 
leader, who did not appear till more than ten years after the 
time we are now speaking of, and a good thirty years after 
Judas of Galilee, so that our writer has committed a twofold 
sin against chronolog} T . 1 

A few more miracles ascribed to Peter will be spoken of 
elsewhere,' 2 since the scene is laid awa} T from Jerusalem, and 
thej* occur in a different connection. Presently, when Paul 
appears in the Acts as a worker of miracles, we shall gain 
fresh light as to the origin of all these stories. At present, 
therefore, we need say no more. But hereafter, whenever we 
find ourselves in contact with the primitive community of 
Jerusalem, or transported into its midst, we shall have to con- 
sider it with especial reference to the dissensions of the ap- 
ostolic age ; and we will therefore seize this opportunity, 
passing over eight or nine eventful years, of giving the only 
remaining narrative about the community of Jerusalem, which 
stands in no connection with these apostolic dissensions. It 
simpfy dwells upon the relations of the believers to the Jew- 
ish government and people now hostile and persecuting, ia- 
stead of favorable as at first; and, though embellished by 
tradition, it records an event which may well be accepted in 
the main as historical. 

It was the last year of the reign of Herod Agrippa I. In 
his zeal for the Jewish religion, but on what special occasion 
we cannot say, this friend of the Pharisees laid violent hands 
upon some of the believers in Jerusalem. Nay, one of the 
Twelve, James the son of Zebedee, fell a victim to the sword, 
and ere long the communit}' was threatened with a still hea- 
vier blow. For the king observed that the Jews were pleased 
b} T what he had done ; so he seized on Peter also, just before 
the Passover, and put him under careful guard, intending to 
pass public sentence of death upon him as soon as the feast 
was over. 

The last night had set in. The Apostle slept peacefully in 

his prison, while the congregation w r atched in fervent prayer 

to God to rescue this precious life. Alas ! there was little 

hope of his escape, for heavy bolts and bars held him relent- 

1 Compare pp. 56, 96. 2 See chap. vi. p. 54-i. 



500 COMMUNITY AT JERUSALEM. 

ler>sly in his captivity, and he was guarded by four soldiers, 
relieved every three hours, who must answer with their lives 
for his safe custody. At this very moment he lay between 
two of the soldiers, with one of his arms fettered to each of 
them, while the two others kept strict watch at the gate, a 
little way apart from one another. But lo ! when all was 
quiet, when no one suspected any thing, a glow of heavenly 
light shone of a sudden through the darkness of the prison, 
and an angel of the Lord stood by the wretched bed. He 
pushed Peter's side and woke him, with the words : " Rise up 
quickly ! " Then the fetters dropped from his hands and he 
rose mechanically. " Gird up your garments and bind 3 T our 
sandals to }X>ur feet," continued the angel ; and when the 
Apostle had obeyed, he added : " Throw on } T our mantle and 
follow me ! " Peter did so, thinking all the while that it was 
a vision, and that he should soon find himself upon his bed 
and in his fetters again. Thej passed unobserved b} T the first 
and second watch, and reached the iron gate that opened into 
tbe street, unchallenged. The gate opened of itself; they 
went out, turned round the corner, walked along one street 
together, and all at once the angel was gone ! It was only 
now that Peter returned to full consciousness, and said: 
" Now I know for certain that the Lord hath sent his angel 
to rescue me from the violence of Herod and the people's 
thirst for blood." So he hastened along the way that led to 
the house of Mary the mother of John, surnamed Mark, 
where a number of the faithful were assembled in praj^er. 
He knocked at the door, and the maid Rhoda came at the 
summons ; but before she opened she asked who it was that 
came at such an untimely hour. When she recognized Peter's 
voice, she was so delighted that she forgot to open the door 
for him, and ran in and told them all that Peter was standing 
outside. They said she was raving, but she persisted in say- 
ing : " Indeed, indeed, he is there ! " " Then it must be his 
guardian angel," they said ; " it can surely bode no good ! " 
Meanwhile Peter knocked again and yet again ; and when at 
last they opened the door, there to the amazement of them all 
stood Peter himself. He motioned them with his hand to 
keep silence, and told them how the Lord had brought him 
out of the prison. Then he told them to inform James and 
all the brethren who were not present of what had taken 
place, and departed himself elsewhere. 

Picture the deadly terror of the soldiers when the morning 
broke and they found the prisoner had vanished without a 



COMMUXITY AT JEfctJSALEM. 501 

trace ! When the king sent for Peter and heard that he was 
gone, he had the sentinels thrown into chains, tried, and exe- 
cuted. Little did he think that the avenging hand of God 
was already stretched over his own head ! It was but a few 
weeks afterwards, when he had left Jerusalem for his mag- 
nificent residential city of Csesarea-Palestina, that he received 
a Phoenician embassy there. He had been violently incensed 
against Tyre and Sidon, and had forbidden the export of corn 
and other necessaries of life from his kingdom to these cities. 
The Phoenicians, who were reduced to great perplexities by 
this measure, found means of bribing Blastus, the king's first 
chamberlain and favorite, to espouse their cause, and then 
had begged for peace. On a certain day, therefore, Herod 
granted their embass}^ a solemn public audience, and an- 
nounced his resolution. Seated on his throne and clad in his 
robes of state, he delivered an address to them in the pres- 
ence of the people, and laid down the conditions of peace. 
The splendor of his appearance impressed all present with a 
sense of his incomparable majest} T , and the substance of whjit 
he said so delighted them that he had no sooner finished thnn 
they burst into rapturous applause, and the blasphemous ciy 
echoed from end to end of the quadrangle, " It is a god thut 
speaks, and not a man ! " Herod did not reject this sacri- 
legious flatter} 7 ". So the angel of the Lord smote him, and a 
few days afterwards he sank under an equally loathsome and 
painful disease of the bowels. 

This angel is already known to us from the narratives of 
the Old Testament, where he appears as an explanation, or 
rather a description, of sudden sickness and death. 1 For 
the rest we find the occasion and manner of Herod's death 
described almost identically in Josephus. This historian 
however knows nothing of an embassy from the Phoenicians 
and a public audience granted them ; but speaks of games in 
honor of the emperor Claudius, at which the king, when the 
first rays of the sun shone upon his silvered robe, was greeted 
by his sycophants as a god. Five days afterwards he was a 
corpse, having suffered ever-increasing agonies meanwhile. 
This confirmation gives a certain guarantee for the truth of 
the story we are considering, which stands alone in the book 
of Acts. The account of Peter's rescue is of course fabu- 
lous, nor does it seem to have occurred to the writer how un- 
worthy of God it would be to make victims of the unoffending 
sentinels. But that James was slain and Peter imprisoned 

i See vol. ii. pp. 29, 291. 



502 STEPHEN AND PHILIP. 

may be accepted as fact ; and, instead of the messenger from 
heaven who gives the latter his liberty, we may suppose that 
the death of the persecutor, which so often opened prison 
doors, or the intercession of some friend, or any other of the 
hundred chances that might give a favorable turn to things, 
resulted in Peter's regaining his freedom. 

We msij remark in passing that Peter's message to the ab- 
sent brethren contains the first mention of James the son of 
Joseph, the brother of Jesus, as a distinguished member of 
the communit3 T at Jerusalem. We shall presently meet him 
again in this capacity, together with Peter. 

But then a great development will already have taken place, 
of which at present the primitive community had not even a 
presentiment, against which it ranged itself in vain, by which 
the cause of Jesus was shaken free from the ceremonial re- 
straints of the Mosaic law and the national exclusiveness of 
the Israelitish prophets. 

Upon this important subject we will now fix our attention. 



Chapter III. 

STEPHEN AND PHILIP. 

Matthew XVII. 1-9; Acts VI.-VIII. 8, 26-40, XI. 19-21; Mat- 
thew XV. 21-28.1 

ON a certain day, says a celebrated legend that rose 
towards the close of the apostolic age, Jesus took his 
three chosen friends, Peter, James, and John, and went up a 
lofty mountain to be alone with them. Here in the sight of 
the three his form was transfigured, his countenance shone 
like the sun, and his garments glittered like the light. At 
the same moment thej saw two figures at his side in the like 
heavenly glory, and recognized them at once as Moses and 
Elijah, who were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter spoke, 
and said to Jesus : " Lord ! it is well for us to be here. If 
it please thee I will make three booths : one for thee, and one 
for Moses, and one for Elijah." But before he had finished 
speaking the shining cloud that girds the Deity had descended 
upon the mountain-top and streamed over the three figures 

i Luke ix. 28-36 : Mark ix. 2-10, vii. 24-30. 



STEPHEN AND PHILIP. £)03 

till the3 T seemed to melt into tbe glow and were lost to sight, 
while the voice of God sounded from the cloud to Peter and 
the others : " This is my beloved Son ; hear him ! " Then in 
a moment all was gone ; but there was no doubt of whom the 
voice had spoken, for when the disciples looked round they 
could see none but Jesus. 

Even without the additional light which the comparison 
with an Old Testament precedent 1 throws upon the details of 
this picture, its general purport can hardly be mistaken; 
while the importance attached to it may be gathered from a 
distinct reference being made to it in the latest book of the 
Bible, the second Epistle of Peter. 2 In the presence of his 
friends and disciples Jesus is transfigured, — that is to say, 
he is recognized b}' them as the Messiah ; but the lawgiver 
and the representative prophet 3 still stand in undiminished 
glory at his side. And Peter, together with James and 
John, wishes to preserve all these three forces, — the Jewish 
law and national expectation no less than the Gospel, — and to 
build tents for them all. Vain is the wish, and vain the pro- 
ject ! The divine will makes itself known, and Moses and 
Elijah disappear, leaving Jesus alone singled out as the son 
of God's good pleasure. 4 There should not and could not be 
any permanent alliance between the new religious truth and 
the ancient practices of external piety prescribed by the Law, 
or the ancient conceptions of a proud, unloving nationality. 5 

But the Apostles had not } T et perceived this incompatibil- 
ity. 6 It was outside their circle and without their help that 
this great step was made, as we shall see in this and the fol- 
lowing chapters. It is not without reason that Peter, James, 
and John, whom the evangelical tradition represents as the 
chosen friends of Jesus, and who were held in the highest 
estimation at Jerusalem and elsewhere as the pillars of the 
communit3 T , — it is not without reason that these three men 
are specially indicated as wishing to retain both Moses and 
Elijah, while Peter, pre-eminently the Apostle of the Jews, 
is made their spokesman. 7 James the son of Joseph we 
must probably regard as virtually taking the place of James 
the son of Zebedee, who was cut off early. Nor must we 
overlook the statement made by all the three Evangelists — 

i Exodus xxiv. 15, 16, 18. 2 2 Peter i. 16b.-18. 

8 See pp. 49, 50. 

4 Psalm ii. 7 ; Isaiah xlii. 1; and Deuteronomy xviii. 15; compare p. 119. 

5 See p. 213. 6 See pp. 211, 232, 292 ff. 
' Galatians ii. 7, 9, 12; 1 Corinthians i. 12. 



504 STEPHEN AND PHILIP. 

though Mark has it in the wrong place — that the disciples 
were very much alarmed by what took place. LuKe says 
that terror came upon them when Moses and Elijah went 
into the cloud and disappeared ; while according to Matthew, 
when the voice from heaven had corrected their first inten- 
tion, they fell down to the ground in fear, but were touched, 
raised up, and encouraged by Jesus. 

We may mention, incidentally, that here again 1 Luke rep- 
resents the vision as a more palpable fact than the others 
make it, though even Mark speaks of the whiteness of the 
garments of Jesus, which shone as no bleacher upon earth 
could make them. The third Gospel further speaks of the 
mountain, as if a real and well-known mountain were in- 
tended ; and in the same spirit the later tradition, overlook- 
ing the emblematic character of the story, pointed out Ta- 
bor as the mount of the Transfiguration. Luke also tells us 
that Jesus went up to pray, 2 and adds the not very appro- 
priate comments that the disciples were drowsj', though they 
kept themselves awake ; that Peter did not know what he 
was saying, — an unlucky touch which reappears in Mark, — 
and that the Apostle did not speak until the representatives 
of the old dispensation were on the point of departing. 
Finally, Luke stands alone in saying that when Moses and 
Elijah appeared in glory the}^ discoursed of the death upon 
the cross which Jesus must endure at Jerusalem ; and though 
this trait does not at all astonish us, especially in Luke, 3 it 
is quite foreign to the main conception of the scene. 

This conception is that the authorny of the Law and the 
prophets must be annulled. But of course this could not be 
done suddenly, nor without a conflict. It was a question 
which only came forward gradually, and could not be settled 
without man} T a strain in the bosom of the community. 

Let us listen to what is told us of the origin of the first of 
these collisions between the old and the new spirit ! 

So far from being appalled or discouraged by the mortal 
peril that threatened, them and the maltreatment they had 
experienced, the Apostles were but stimulated to continue 
their preaching of Jesus as the Messiah both in the temple 
and at home ; 4 and consequently the numbers of the faithful 
still increased. If only this outward success had been ac- 
companied by undiminished brotherly affection and unbroken 
harmony ! But alas ! the season of first love had all too 

1 See p. 120. 2 See p. 261. 

3 See pp. 465, 475, 494, 495. * See p. 498. 



STEPHEN AND PHILIP. 505 

booh passed by. Differences of language and of country 
asserted themselves, and peace had fled. 

For though most of the members of the community had 
been born and bred on Jewish soil, and were so-called He- 
brews, yet there was also a large number of Grecians among 
them, — that is to say, foreign Jews, who had settled in Jeru- 
salem or the neighborhood, 1 but continued for the most part 
to speak their native Greek, which was then the language of 
the'woiid. Among them there were even certain proselytes, 
or men of heathen birth, who had undergone circumcision, 
accepted the whole Mosaic law, and been incorporated as 
members of the Jewish people. Now these two elements, 
the Hebrew and the Grecian, had never completely amalga- 
mated ; and, as the communny increased, it fell more and 
more completely into two separate groups. The cause of 
this may be found partly in the natural tendenc} T to associate 
with one's fellow-townsmen and fellow-countr3 T men ; but 
partly, perhaps, in a certain tone of superior^ assumed by 
the natives of Palestine toward the Jews from heathen lands ; 
and yet more in greater or less diversities of feeling and opin- 
ion which could not alwa} T s be kept back. For the Grecians, 
who had grown up and possibly lived for many jesus in a 
heathen atmosphere, were for the most part less intolerant 
and bitter than the others, while their frequent contact with 
the Grecian civilization had in many cases opened their 
minds and expanded their horizon ; and, finally, they knew 
by experience that even at a distance from the temple and 
its dazzling ceremonial an earnest piet}' was possible. 

The occasion, however, that revealed the elements of dissen- 
sion is said to have been of a purely material nature. The 
Grecians complained of the Hebrews, apparently with justice, 
on the ground that in the daily distribution of money or food 
to the need} 7 - members of the community their widows had to 
give way to the others, and always came off worst. This 
could not possibl}' be an accident ; but the charge of par- 
tiality was not pressed against the Apostles personally, or at 
an} T rate not against them alone, but against those who sur- 
rounded them, and in general the whole Hebrew-speaking, 
or rather Aramaic-speaking, portion of the community. An 
end must certainly be put to these complaints, and at the 
same time to the . strained and uneasj^ relations which they 
indicated. So the Twelve summoned a meeting of all the 
believers, and laid the whole question before them, with the 

1 See p. 485. 
vol. in. 22 



506 STEPHEN AND PHILIP. 

words, "We should have to sacrifice the work of preaching 
if we gave the sustenance of the poor the attention it requires ; 
so do you, brethren, ]ook round for some of your number who 
are favorably known to all of you, and select seven of them 
amply endowed with the gifts of the Spirit and of wisdom 
needful for this delicate and laborious work of love ; and we 
will then commit this service to them, and devote the whole 
of our own time and strength to pra} T er in our assemblies 
and to the preaching of the Lord." 

The proposal was received with unmingled approval, and 
the brethren selected Stephen, a man conspicuous for his 
mighty faith and glowing enthusiasm, Philip, Prochorus, 
Ni^anor, Timon, Parmenas, and finally a certain proselyte, 
Nicolas of Antioch. These men were then presented to the 
Apostles, who consecrated them to the service by prayer, 
and by laying their hands upon them. 

Meanwhile, the community at Jerusalem was constantly 
increasing ; even the priests, in man}^ cases, forgot their 
enmity and became believers. But before long a fearful 
storm was to break. 

Among the Seven, Stephen distinguished himself from the 
first by the wealth of his divine gifts and powers, which en- 
abled him to do great signs and wonders among the Jews. 
He directed his preaching especially to foreigners, whom he 
found in their several sjmagogues ; for we must know that 
the Holy City was full of houses of prayer. According to the 
Talmud there were no fewer than four hundred and eight}' ; 
but, of course, the greater number of them would be small 
and insignificant. It appears that almost every district or 
great cit}% in which there were mairy Jews, had one of these 
synagogues in Jerusalem, which served for the use of saay of 
its citizens who might permanently settle in Jerusalem, and 
also for those who went up to celebrate a feast. It was & 
kind of general rendezvous. Thus, in connection with Ste- 
phen's work, we are told of S3'iiagogues of the Asians, or 
natives of the coast of Asia Minor ; of the Cilicians. in whose 
capital (Tarsus) many Jews were settled ; of the Alexan- 
drians, for two of the five quarters of the magnificent capital 
of Eg3^pt were entirely Jewish ; of the C3 T rengeans, for one- 
fourth of the population of Cyrene was Jewish ; 1 and, lastly, 
of the Libertini, or Roman " freedmen," — that is to sa}\ Jews 
who had been captured in war, and carried to Rome as slaves, 
or had been born in slavery there, but who had subsequently 
» See p. 448. 



STEPHEN AND PHILIP. 507 

been set free b} r their masters. Now in these S3 T nagogues 
Stephen encountered the most violent opposition, both be- 
cause of his great success and because of the special views 
which he enunciated. In his mouth the preaching of Jesus 
as the Messiah appeared to threaten religion with insult and 
danger. So some of the worshippers attempted to refute 
him, and argued with him as to the abiding authority of the 
Law and the eternal significance of the temple and its service. 
It was all in vain ! These controversies, as is often the case, 
instead of making Stephen withdraw the assertions to which 
so much exception was taken, only drove him to more uncom- 
promising utterances than ever ; and } T et his opponents could 
never hold their own against his penetration and skill, and 
above all against his enthusiasm. So they incited certain 
fanatics to accuse Stephen publicly of blasphemous (heretical) 
language against the Law of Moses and the whole Jewish 
religion. 1 This made a great commotion, both among the 
populace and the members of the Sanhedrim ; and as Stephen, 
who went his wa} r undaunted, was again discoursing in a syna 
gogue, he found himself suddenly surrounded by his enemies, 
seized, and dragged before the Council. 

The trial began at once. False witnesses 2 had been se- 
cured, and gave their testimon}' : "This man preaches day 
by day against the temple and the Law. For we have heard 
him say that ere long this Jesus of Nazareth will devastate 
the temple and abolish the institutions given us b}^ Moses." 
In burning indignation all the senators fixed their eyes upon 
the prisoner, and behold ! his face was flooded with a heavenly 
glory. But the president asked sternly, " Is it true what they 
have said ? " and Stephen instantly replied in a long discourse, 
in which he ran through the whole history of Israel from 
Abraham's call to the building of Solomon's temple, in a vein 
which strongly reminds us of Ezra's confession on occasion 
of the introduction of the Mosaic law. 3 

Stephen traced in detail the fulfilment of God's prediction 
to the patriarch that his posterity should sojourn in a strange 
land ; should long be oppressed there ; should be avenged 
and brought out by God ; should then be blessed with the 
revelation of the true religion, and should be brought into 
the land of promise, where thej* must worship Him. It was 
only indirectly and incidentally that he refuted the accusation 
brought against him by speaking of God's election, guidance, 

1 Compare pp. 434, 435. 2 Compare p. 429. 

3 See vol. ii. p. 500. 



508 STEFHEN AND PHILIP. 

and protection of Israel ; by describing Moses as the great 
man of God to whom the angel of the Lord on Sinai revealed 
the commandments, the observance of which gives life, and 
by appealing to the prophets 1 in support of his ideas about 
the temple. The real conception and drift of the discourse 
was to hurl back the charge of impiety with redoubled force 
upon the people, and *o explain by historical analogy the 
cause of the unfavorable reception which his preaching of the 
Messiah had met from Israel. For the greater and more 
numerous God's blessings had been, the more corrupt and 
wicked had Israel always shown itself. Moses had felt it 
more than an}- one, — Moses, who foretold the coming of a 
prophet, like himself; namely, the Messiah : Moses, who was 
himself a type of that Messiah in his person and his lot, espe- 
cially in the treatment he experienced at the hands of his peo- 
ple. For when he tried to rescue his brothers they renounced 
him ; and afterwards, in spite of all that God had done for 
them and given them through him, the}' disobeyed and de- 
serted him, and made themselves a golden calf, whereupon 
God gave them over to idolatry. And in the same way their 
age-old superstition, that the Most High actually dwelt in the 
temple, was a proof of their narrowness and w T ant of spiritu- 
ality. As Stephen thus set forth the rebellious spirit of 
Israel, his words grew hotter every moment ; and though he 
had begun very courteously, addressing the senators as " fa- 
thers " and the rest as u brethren," and begging their atten- 
tion, he ended by bursting into a violent denunciation, in 
which he chastised them as a stiff-necked people, externally 
pious, but inwardly estranged from God, deaf to His voice, 
and no better than so man}' heathen. " You never fail," he 
cried, "to resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did before 
you ! Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? 
It was they who slew all who foretold the coming of the Right- 
eous One, and it is you who have now betrayed and murdered 
the Righteous One himself; it is you who have accepted the 
Law ordained by angels, but have not observed it ! " 

The hearers were seized with ungovernable rage, and 
gnashed their teeth against him ; but he did not so much as 
see them, for he was gazing in a transport into heaven, where 
he saw the Divine Glory and saw Jesus standing at God's 
right hand, as though he had risen to receive him. " See 
there ! " he cried ; "I can see the heavens opened, and the 
Son of Man standing on God's right hand." Then the sena- 
i See vol. ii., pp. 527, 528. 



STEPHEN AND PHILIP. 509 

tors shrieked with rage and horror ; and, putting their fingers 
into their ears, they rushed upon Stephen as a single man, 
droA r e him out of the city, and stoned him on the very spot- 
Not a shade of fear ov vindictiveness passed over the martyr's 
soul. As the stones came crashing upon him, he raised his 
hands on high, and said : " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit ! " 
Then he fell upon his knees and uttered one last cry. It was 
a prayer for his murderers, tC Lord, lay not this sin to their 
charge ! " and he breathed his last, crushed among the 
stones. 

At the fall of night certain pious men came to the deserted 
place of punishment, drew out the mangled corpse from 
beneath the stones, gave it decent burial, and made great 
mourning for the dead, with funeral music and fasting. 

But only very few were bold and generous enough to think 
and act in this way, for the madness of fanaticism was now 
aroused. The death of Stephen was the signal for a furious 
persecution, which scattered all the brethren through every 
district of Judaea and Samaria, except the Apostles only, who 
remained at Jerusalem. 

Among the persecutors a certain man in the early prime of 
life, named Saul, particularly distinguished himself. He was 
present at the death of Stephen ; and when the two witnesses 
whose duty it was to throw the first stones laid aside their 
mantles, he took charge of them. It rejoiced his heart to see 
the blasphemer rooted out from the people of the Lord. 
And yet ! — 

This is a most remarkable narrative, and is doubly interest- 
ing because the first martyr appears in it as the herald of the 
independent development of the Christian comniunit}'. We 
must not leave it therefore till we have submitted it to a 
careful examination. 

In the main we may regard it as historical, though of 
course we cannot believe in the assembly of all these thou- 
sands of disciples, in the conversion of a whole host of priests, 
in the mighty miracles of Stephen, in the transfiguration of 
his countenance till it became like an angel's, or even in the 
genuineness of his discourse, — which contains several small 
inaccuracies that we have not stayed to point out. 1 All this, 
and more of the like nature, we pass over ; nor will we ven- 
ture to decide whether Stephen's prayer to be received for a 
time into heaven, together with his glorified Lord, was really 
1 Acts vii. 2, 6, 16, 29, et seq. 



510 STEPHEN AND PHILIP. 

uttered by him in sacred transport at the moment of his mar- 
t3Tdom, or was put into his mouth in after times, when the 
Christians believed that all the martyrs would be exempt from 
the necessity of descending to the land of shades. 1 Again, 
though the writer represents the Sanhedrim as behaving like 
a band of savage robbers, an^l Stephen as the victim of a 
tumult, he puts us in the way of correcting his own account, 
and lets us see that the trial and the defence took the regular 
course by speaking of the two witnesses who laid aside their 
outer garments and began the execution as required by law 
and order. Perhaps it is also clue to this inaccuracy of de- 
scription that we are no longer able to discover whether the 
Sanhedrim demanded and obtained permission to carry out 
the sentence, or whether they exceeded their powers by dis- 
pensing with it. 2 It has been conjectured that just at this 
time there was not a procurator in office at all, — the old one 
having been deposed and the new one not yet having arrived, 
— and that the Sanhedrim in consequence ma}' have taken more 
upon themselves than they would otherwise have ventured to 
do. The striking similarity between the wa} T in which Ste- 
phen meets his fate and the account in the third Gospel of the 
last hours of Jesus may rouse a certain amount of suspicion, 
but this suspicion must fall less upon the narrative we are 
now considering than upon the other. 3 On the other hand, 
the partial coincidence between the charge brought against 
Stephen and that which the first two Gospels represent as 
preferred against Jesus seems to plead for the accuracy of 
both accounts. And here too the u falseness " of the evidence 
does not consist in its being an invention, but in the turn 
which it gave to Stephen's words. He certainly never in- 
tended to sa} T that when Jesus returned he would violentl}' 
destro} T the temple and abolish the whole Law, but simply 
that in the kingdom of God the service of the temple would 
give way to a purer form of worship, and the idolatry of 
forms and ceremonies to a life in the true spirit of the Law. 
Finally, the writer once more corrects himself by letting us 
know 4 that not all the believers, but only the Grecians who 
sympathized with Stephen, were persecuted and expelled 
from Jerusalem. Not only the Apostles, therefore, remained 

1 Revelation vi. 9, 11, xx. 4; compare Phil ippians i. 23. 

2 See pp. 437, 438. 

8 Compare Acts vii. 56, 59, 60 with Luke xxii. 69, xxiii. 46, 34; and see 
pp. 432 ff., 451 ff. 

* Acts ix. 26 ff., and xi. 19 ff., in contrast with viii. 1. 



STEPHEN AND PHILIP. 511 

in Jerusalem, but all those who had been on their side ; for 
they had not exposed themselves to any clanger, and had not 
roused the spirit of fanaticism. The persecution was violent, 1 
but limited ; though the account in Acts may be true to this 
extent, that the community in general suffered in its repu- 
tation among the rigid Jews, when the attitude assumed by 
the more free-thinking members brought suspicion upon the 
whole. 

Now the evidence it supplies of these internal divisions is 
just what makes the story, on the whole, deserve our confi- 
dence. Stephen is evidently our author's hero. 2 He wishes 
to secure him full recognition, and consequently makes the 
light fall full upon him while the Apostles sink into the back- 
ground. But when the progress of the narrative necessarily 
brings out the differences of view that had very early found 
their wa}- into the community, the author endeavors to conceal 
or disguise the fact as completely as possible. So he simply 
dismisses the accusation against Stephen as " false," just as he 
afterwards does in the case of Paul ; 3 he makes the whole com- 
munity victims of the persecution ; and, above all, he finds the 
point of difference between the two parties in no religious ques- 
tion at all, but in a simple matter of the distribution of alms ; 
while he makes the Seven not the representatives of a party 
within the communit} T , but officers selected b}- all the faithful 
together, and consecrated by the Apostles themselves with 
prayer and the laying on of hands. Now this attempt at 
concealment is the ve^ best evidence of the fact — which 
peeps through the narrative in spite of the author — that in 
the community at Jerusalem, even in the first period of its 
existence, two divergent tendencies were gradually discerni- 
ble. In general terms they may be described as that of the 
Hebrews, — who formed the great majority, recognized the 
Twelve as their leaders, and in their turn exercised a marked 
influence upon them, — and that of the Grecians, whose 
champions or leaders were the Seven. 

We are safe in assuming that all the Seven were Grecians. 
This belief is suggested by their names, which are all Greek ; 
for though Palestinian Jews had sometimes Greek names, as 
was the case with the two Apostles Andrew and Philip for in- 
stance, 3'et it cannot be an accident that there is not a single 
Hebrew name in the seven. Besides, we are expressly told 
that Nicolas came from Antioch, and was even born a hea- 
then, while Stephen and Philip are pointed out as Greeks 

i Galatians i. 13. 2 Acts vi. 5, 8, 10, 15. 3 Acta xxi. 28, 21. 



512 STEPHEN AND PHILIP. 

with almost equal certainty by the circles in which they worked 
and the whole tone of their teaching. And even in the case 
of the other four, whose names alone we know, the circum- 
stances of their appointment and the drift of the story which 
records it require us to suppose a foreign origin. It remains 
a myster} 7 wiry Barnabas, himself a Grecian Jew, a generous 
giver, and a man of liberal views, does not appear among the 
Seven. 

And now the question forces itself upon us whether com- 
plaints about the distribution of alms were really the beginning 
of the whole affair. Many have traced the institution of the 
order of k ' deacons " in the appointment of the Seven ; but 
this is out of the question. It would be more to the point to 
speak of " elders ; " for it was to them, according to a later 
account, 1 that the management and distribution of funds for 
the poor was entrusted at Jerusalem. But the writer evi- 
dently intends to represent the office of the Seven (a sacred 
number) as purely local and temporary, confined to Jerusalem, 
and terminated by this persecution. Setting this point aside 
then, there is no inherent difficulty in believing that the neg- 
lect of the Greek widows was the occasion of the independent 
appearance of the two schools ; for how often does it happen 
that a deep-seated difference is first openly avowed upon some 
far more trivial occasion than the one we are now considering ! 
But, unfortunately for our belief in this version of the affair, 
there is a somewhat analogous case of which we still possess 
the genuine and original account by Paul ; and there the au- 
thor of Acts represents a split which was really caused by a 
conflict of principle of extreme importance, as though it were 
occasioned by an insignificant disagreement on another mat- 
ter. 2 This naturally makes us suspicious in the case of the 
Seven also ; and when we look a little closer we find that our 
author yet again corrects himself, for instead of making 
Stephen busy himself with distributing the gifts of love, he 
represents him as constantly preaching the word of God. 
And in the same way he speaks of Philip, not as an almoner 
but as a preacher, and expressly mentions the name given 
him, descriptive of his office, in the words, " Philip the Evan- 
gelist, one of the Seven." 8 That sounds exceedingly like a 
parallel to "James the Apostle, one of the Twelve;" and 
perhaps we must look upon all the Seven as preachers. The 
original occasion, then, upon which the}^ came forward as 

1 Acts xi. 30. 2 Acts xv. 37 ff. compared with Galatians ij. 13, 14. 

8 Acts xxi. 8. 



STEPHEN AND PHILIP. 513 

representatives of the Greek school is certainly lost, and we 
must regard their appointment as almoners by the community 
and their consecration by the Apostles as a fiction. 

We have frequently spoken of two schools in the commu- 
nity, but we must not suppose that as yet there was any 
distinctly marked and conscious difference of view between 
them. What difference there was, was rather felt and to 
some extent manifested in the mutual bearing of the parties 
than clearly expressed. The great majority of the followers 
of Jesus were naturally more strict in the observances of ex- 
ternal religion in the rigidly orthodox Jerusalem than his im- 
mediate associates had ever been in Galilee. 1 But the minority 
also clustered round a nucleus of personal disciples of Jesus 
who had joined him earl}' or late in his ministry, and had 
perhaps grasped his principles better than the Twelve had 
done ; 2 or if the}' had only heard and seen him during his 
stay in Jerusalem, yet the manner of his first appearance 
there, his sayings about renewing the temple and about sacri- 
fice, his castigation of the Pharisees, and much more besides, 
had sufficed to teach them his spirit, 3 — r and the minority which 
gathered round them moved with more freedom than the rest. 
Inclination and capacity, backed by a certain amount of gen- 
eral culture, helped towards this result. If they cherished 
but a languid interest in the temple service, and insisted ex- 
clusively upon conduct in harmony with the (moral) spirit 
of the Law, the}* felt that in doing so they were bringing 
their hearts and lives into sympathy with the prophets, and 
above all with the Master himself. The}' expected that when 
Jesus returned, "the Law and the prophets" would be ful- 
filled in this moral sense, to the exclusion of all the com- 
mandments of men. Though they had not the least idea of 
detaching themselves from their people, yet we may gather 
from the discourse of Stephen, from what we are soon to hear 
of Philip, and from the course of events at Antioch, that 
the}' had largely overcome their national exclusiveness and 
were quite disposed to throw open the approach to the kingdom 
of God to others than Jews ; and this result was due partly 
to their indifference to Levitical purity, which was the great wall 
of partition between Israel and the heathen, partly to their 
strong sense of the stubbornness displayed by Israel against 
Moses and the prophets, against Jesus and his witnesses. 
But all this does not imply that there was any sharp division 

1 See pp. 211-215, 232, 276 ff. 2 g ee pp. 184, 198, 302. 

8 See pp. 365 ff., 373, 431, 383-386, 218. 

22* 



514 STEPHEN AND PHILIP. 

or opposition between them and the Hebrew believeis. Far 
from it. Bat it was they who first preached the exclusive 
importance of a life in the Master's spirit, and began to work 
out or apply the great principle involved in the recognition 
of the Crucified as the Messiah. 1 

And now that we understand the significance of this re- 
cord and of the person of Stephen, and observe that Paul 
took an active part in his execution and in persecuting his 
companions, we cannot help thinking of the first martyr's 
work in connection with that of the Apostle of the gentiles 
himself. It is true that the charge preferred against Stephen, 
when interpreted bj~ his own defence, indicates a position far 
below that to which Paul attained ; for in Stephen and his 
friends we can see no trace of the great Apostle's doctrine 
concerning the Law, the crucifixion, and salvation by faith, — 
of his piercing insight, his undaunted thoroughness, his defi- 
nite breach with Judaism. Yet certainly Stephen was Paul's 
precursor, and we have now witnessed the beginning of the 
new work of the Spirit, the first sign of life of the new com- 
munit}' of the Christ, the clear indication of a new period in 
the history of the Gospel. 

The persecution set on foot against a portion of the com- 
munity had, as usual, exactty the opposite effect to the one 
intended. When Stephen had been executed and several 
of the Grecians, thrown into prison and dragged before the 
tribunal, a considerable number of the believers, feeling that 
they were no longer safe at the seat of orthodox} 7 , left Jeru- 
salem for other Judsean cities, and in some cases even went 
to Samaria. And wherever they went or stayed, even if the}' 
did not come forward publicly as preachers, they could not 
help taking such opportunities as occurred of speaking on the 
subject that lay next their hearts ; and thus they won fresh 
followers for Jesus, and little communities were formed in 
various places in the Jewish land. 

The work of Philip the Evangelist, one of the Seven, is es- 
pecially commemorated. He went to a city in Samaria, 
preached Jesus there as the Messiah, and met with the success 
that might have been anticipated from the state of religious 
excitement in which he found the Samaritans. 2 This was a 
great step in advance, and a proof of Philip's freedom of 
spirit. Indeed, the writer of Acts himself desires us to look 
upon it as a step towards preaching to the gentiles ; for 
i See p. 493. 2 See p. 99. 



3TEPHEN AND PHILIP. 515 

though the Samaritans themselves claimed to be genuine 
Israelites, though they worshipped the Lord, practised cir- 
cumcision, observed all the law of Moses, and lived in expec- 
tation of the Messianic kingdom, 3'et the Jews looked upon 
them as no better than heathen ; and what is more, there was 
not a Jew, there was not a member of the community, not 
even Philip himself, who would have thought for a moment 
of reckoning them among the posterity of Abraham, for 
whom the Messiah and his salvation were supposed to be ex- 
clusively destined. So now the narrow circle was broken 
through for the first time, and the approach to the Messianic 
kingdom thrown open to others than Jews. The honor of this 
decisive step belongs to Philip. Yet we must not for a mo- 
ment suppose that he had definitely relinquished the idea of 
Israel's hereditary right to the kingdom of God, or was pre- 
pared to go forward, without shrinking, and accept and 
preach with full consciousness the principle of the abandon- 
ment of all privileges of birth or nationality, — the principle of 
equality, as opposed to the national exclusiveness and pride 
of the Jews. Philip's large-heartedness was fostered, as we 
have seen, by the freer conceptions he had embraced, and he 
was conscious of acting in the true spirit of the Master ; * 
but he was far from realizing the full significance of the step 
to which he was impelled hy his love of Jesus and his zeal for 
the kingdom of God. 

Details are wanting. Our author only cared to chronicle 
the fact itself. He does not even tell us the name of the 
city ; he simply makes his usual statement that Philip per- 
formed miracles, such as the cure of man} 7 demoniacs, out 
of whom the devils came with piercing shrieks, and of many 
maimed and crippled ones, — all which called general atten- 
tion to his preaching, and caused great joy in the city. 

After this we are told of another act of Philip, which 
bears witness to the same free spirit. The supernatural cir- 
cumstances by which it is surrounded were intended to make 
it more striking, and perhaps clothe it with the divine sanc- 
tion. An angel of the Lord, we are told, commanded Philip 
to leave Samaria and hasten southwards, along the least fre- 
quented of the roads from Jerusalem to Gaza. He obeyed ; 
and in doing so he overtook the travelling carriage of a dis- 
tinguished Ethiopian, — the chamberlain and first treasurer 
of the Queen of Meroe, who was called (after the usual cus- 
tom of these Ethiopian princesses) Candace. Now, although 
1 See p. 301. 



516 STEPHEN AND PHILIP. 

tlds stianger was a heathen, — that is to say, was uneir- 
cumcised, — yet he worshipped Israel's God, and was now 
returning from a visit to the temple. There he sat, with a 
parchment-roll in his hand, reading to himself, but above 
his breath, as Le drove along. The roll contained the prophe- 
cies of Isaiah in the Greek version, and the traveller was 
reading the verses that describe how the servant of the Lord 
is struck down without complaint or resistance. 1 Prompted 
by the Holy Spirit, Philip walked beside the carriage, and 
asked the great officer whether he understood what he was 
reading ; and he answered that he could not understand it 
without further instruction, begging him at the same time to 
take the seat beside him and explain whether the prophet was 
really speaking about himself or some one else. What bet- 
ter opening could there have been for the Evangelist to speak 
of Jesus, in whom that passage of Scripture was fulfilled? 
He found a grateful hearer in the chamberlain ; and when 
a few hours had sped b} 7 , he announced himself a convert, 
and desired to be baptized. The} 7 were close by a stream ; 
the Ethiopian ordered the carriage to stop ; the two descended, 
and Philip consecrated his companion as a future citizen of 
the kingdom of God. But, just as they were stepping out of 
the water, the Spirit of the Lord suddenly snatched away the 
preacher miraculously, 2 so that the other could not so much 
as take leave of him, but was left to continue his homeward 
journe} T full of deep joy in his new faith in Jesus. Mean- 
while, Philip was transported to Ashdod, at a distance of five 
or six leagues, whence he journe} T ed through the cities near 
the sea-coast, preaching eveiy where, till he came to Caesarea, 
a city largely inhabited by heathen, where he took up his 
abode. 

Still more important events remain. We heard just now 
of persecuted brethren scattered over Judaea and Samaria ; 
but there were also many who passed the boundaries of Jew- 
ish land and went to Phoenicia, the island of C} r prus, and An- 
tioch, the magnificent capital of Syria. Now wherever they 
went they preached their faith to the Jews of the place, and of 
course to them only. At last, however, certain Cyprians and 
Cyrenaeans, who had formerly been attracted to Jerusalem by 
religious zeal, and were now expelled from it bj T religious 
rancor, settled in Antioch, and there began to speak to hea- 
then on the subject of their faith, and to preach Jesus and his 
principles and kingdom to them. They experienced God's 

1 See vol. ii. pp. 420, 421. 2 Compare vol. ii. pp. 140, 152. 



STEPHEN AND PHILIP. 517 

unmistakable support and blessing we are told, so that great 
numbers believed, renounced their idolatry and superstition, 
and were converted to the Lord. They were the first-fruits 
of the mightj' harvest that the heathen world should yield ! 

What we said of Philip is still more applicable here. The 
step was of incalculable consequence ; for the writer evidently 
means that these heathen were not compelled or even urged 
to submit to circumcision and other Jewish ordinances as a 
condition of their admittance. What freedom and boldness, 
what a fine spirit of humanitj', what zeal for the cause of 
Jesus on the part of the preachers all this shows ! We 
would gladly know more of them, but have only the name of 
one, — Lucius the Cyrensean, — and at most can only conjec- 
ture that Barnabas the C}'prian was another. Yet, on the 
other hand, we must not suppose that these men had arrived 
at the conviction that the Law was annulled, that the distinc- 
tion between Jew and heathen was abolished, and that hence- 
forth faith must be the only condition of admission into the 
kingdom of God. 1 The glory of first discovering and preach- 
ing this remains with Paul. Indeed, it would be impossible 
to accept the statement that a community of Grecian Jews 
and uncircumcised converts was formed at Antioch in any 
such way as would overshadow the services of Paul or rob his 
apostleship to the Gentiles of its originality. 

Ere long we shall see the Apostle of the gentiles hurl down 
the wall of partition ; but meanwhile our thoughts involunta- 
rily turn to the second great condition which made it possible 
to preach the gospel in Greek society, — the condition which 
must have moved the preachers already spoken of, and with- 
out which Paul, in spite of the might of his conviction, would 
have ploughed upon the rocks ! This second condition was 
the sense of want on the p^_t of the heathen world itself. The 
capacity for receiving the gospel lay in the longing for a deeper 
knowledge of the truth, a purer worship of the Deity, a 
mightier support for the moral life, and a firmer foundation 
for hope in the future than the ancient and superannuated re- 
ligions could give. 2 Heathendom was ready to hear of the 
God of Jesus and the kingdom Jesus came to establish. 

Had not the gentile world been straining for deliverance, 
how could the religion of a crucified Jew have found accept- 
ance with it? The heathen then did not fail on their side to 
press for admission ; and it was to this pressure rerhaps, 

1 Compare Galatians ii. 13. 2 See p. ? 



518 STEPHEN AND PHILIP. 

more than to a 113' thing else, that they owed their participation 
in the kingdom of God. This fact is set before our eyes in a 
miraculous stoiy, from which we may perhaps make out the 
views of the liberal school before Paul as to tne conversion 
of heathen. We will give it as it appears in the first Gospel, 
and therewith close this chapter, as we opened it, with an 
emblematic scene : — 

Jesus was once journeying in a heathen land (Phoenicia 2 ) . 
A woman of the country came to him and cried : " Have pity 
on me, Lord, thou son of David ! my daughter is grievously 
afflicted by a demon." But Jesus did not answer a word. 
Then his disciples came to him and said : " Send her aw T ay, 
for she is shouting after us;" upon which he said: "I am 
only sent to the lost sheep of Israel's house." But then the 
woman fell at his feet and cried imploring^ : ' ' Lord ! help 
me ! " Jesus still refused. " We may not take the children's 
bread," he answered, " and throw it to the dogs ; " on which 
she said : " No, Lord ! but the dogs may have the fragments 
that fall from the table of their masters." Then Jesus }*ielded. 
4t O woman ! great is your faith," he exclaimed ; " 3'our pra} T er 
is granted." And the sufferer was healed. 

The meaning of this story, which Mark reproduces with 
sundry modifications, designed for the most part to soften 
the harshness of the expressions, is easy to perceive. Against 
its literal truth we might urge the title of " son of David " given 
to Jesus by a heathen woman ; the implication that his mis- 
sion was to cure diseases, and that it would prejudice his own 
nation if he helped a heathen who happened to be thrown in 
his way ; the repulsive harshness and national arrogance here 
attributed to the Christ ; and, finally, the performance of the 
cure at a distance. All these difficulties disappear if we 
accept it symbolically. The Phoenician woman becomes the 
heathen world beseeching the Christ to rescue her children 
from the power of Satan. 2 In vain ! The salvation of the 
kingdom of God is only offered to the children of the house- 
hold (to Israel), not to the dogs (the heathen). 8 But she 
perseveres ; she is content if she may but pick up the chance 
fragments that fall within her grasp ; and her perseverance 
wins the day. 

Observe that this healing from a distance, — that is to say, 
this benefit conferred upon the heathen world b} 7 the emissa- 
ries of Jesus and not b} r him in person, 4 — is as it were wrung 

1 See pp. 281 ff. 2 Acts xxvi. 18 ; compare pp. 322-324. 

s Set p. 389 ; Matthew vii. 6; 2 Peter ii. 22. 4 See p. 309. 



APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 519 

from hiiii, that is from his community ; and that as }'et there 
is not the least idea of placing the heathen on the same level 
with the Jews. But at the same time the longing for salva- 
tion on the part of the heathen gives the actual proof of 
their equality, nay, their superiority for a time, to the unbe- 
lieving Israel. We are now to see the Apostle of the hea- 
then vindicating their rights, and realizing the presentiment 
of Jesus. 1 



Chapter IV, 

THE APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 

Galatians I. 13-20; Acts IX. 1-30. 

WHOM have we to thank for the fact that the name and 
the gospel of the crucified Galilsean were preached 
throughout the ancient world, triumphing alike over supreme 
indifference and furious hostility, over the brilliance of sar- 
castic wit and the bitterness of deadly hatred? Whose fault 
is it that the purpose of Jesus himself, who labored to found 
the kingdom of God and not " a religion," was thwarted by 
the rise under his name of a new and separate religion, — of 
the Christian church and the church's doctrines ? One answer 
serves for both these questions, for they indicate the twin 
results of the rise and work of Paul. 

Of Paul! After Jesus, to whom he himself declared that 
he owed all he was and all he had, we surety are acquainted 
with no mightier personality than Paul's. By turns received 
with acclamation and loaded with scorn and hatred, Paul, 
with his giant spirit and his restless energy, whether compre- 
hended or not, has directly or indirectly dominated the de- 
velopment of Christianity ; and to this ver} T day the great 
majority of believers have not derived their knowledge of the 
Master and the influence it exercises upon them direct from 
the fountain head, — that is to sa}' from the Jesus of history 
himself, — but rather from the channels cut out by Paul in his 
conception and preaching of the Christ. 

And now that we come to speak of Paul we have firmer 
ground beneath our feet than we have hitherto trodden ; for 
we have access to genuine and perfectly trustworthy sources 
i See pp. 301 ff., 235, 236. 



520 APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 

of informatioi about him ; and consequently his image stands 
before us in much sharper and clearer outlines than that of 
Jesus. Though many details, especially concerning his out- 
ward lot, are doubtful or unknown, } T et his own words give 
us adequate knowledge of his character, his doctrine, his 
work, his struggles, and much else of extreme importance. 

To begin with, we ask who he was ; arid we hear from his 
own mouth 1 that he was in every respect of purely Jewish 
origin, — a fact to which he evidently attached no little weight 
before his conversion. Neither he nor any of his forefathers 
had belonged to the Greek-speaking Jews ; from father to 
son they had all been Hebrews. Still less was there a single 
drop of foreign blood in his veins which could give a pre- 
text for disputing his claim to be a true Israelite and member 
of God's chosen people. He could show the highest patent 
of nobility in his descent from Abraham, and the title it 
gave him as a son of the promise, an heir of the Messianic 
salvation. 

Sprung from the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised on the 
eighth day after his birth, he had been brought up in strict 
and stern compliance with the ordinances of the Law and 
the tradition, for which he early displayed unbounded reve- 
rence and burning zeal. He threw himself with heart and 
soul into the Pharisaic camp. We gather from the line of 
argument adopted in his letters, and from the scholastic 
learning which he had at his command, that he was educated 
as a Rabbi ; in which case he would follow the usual custom 
of learning a trade, which subsequently enabled him to pro- 
vide for his own support on his missionary journe} T s. We 
think of him as a city child, unacquainted with the free, 
fresh scenes of Nature ; and we know that he could not boast 
of a powerful frame, an impressive cast of features, or other 
external advantages. 

On the other hand, he could afterwards declare that con- 
cerning the Law he had been irreproachable in his observ- 
ance of the commandments, and was prominent as a zealot 
among his contemporaries and associates. He was a spe- 
cially ardent champion for the maintenance of the oral law, 
and against every thing that might infringe on its authority. 
Not content with all this, he was stirred by his zeal for Juda- 
ism to take a prominent part in the persecution of the com- 
munity of Jesus. The Master himself he had probably never 

1 Romans xi. 1; 2 Corinthians xi. 22; Galatians i. 13, 14; Philippians iii 
4-6 ; compare pp. 35, 90, 91, 93, 94, 277, 505. 



APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 521 

seen, and perhaps had heard little and taken no special no- 
tice of him daring his life. He certainly took no part in his 
death, and was not present on the occasion. It follows, 
therefore, that he was not in the Cit} T of the Temple at the 
Passover in the year 35 a.d. At what period he became 
acquainted with the sect of Nazarenes we do not know ; but 
whenever it was, he was so deeply shocked in his inmost 
soul- by the preaching of the Crucified, that, when the false 
doctrine spread and the Greek Jews that it counted among 
its adherents began to attract attention, he heartily rejoiced 
in the violent measures taken against them, and even gave 
them a powerful stimulus himself. He repeatedly calls him- 
self a persecutor of the community, — a devastator of the 
faith. 

So much we learn directly or indirectly from his own let- 
ters. The writer of Acts gives several additional particulars, 
telliug us that he bore the Jewish name of Saul as well as 
his better-known name of Paul ; that he was a tent-maker, — 
a trade, observe, which was poorly paid, but left the mind 
free for deep reflection, — and that he had inherited the 
rights of Roman citizenship 1 from his father. How the lat- 
ter had acquired them we are not told. But when the same 
author tells us that Paul was born in Tarsus, in Cilicia, it is 
difficult to reconcile the statement with the Apostle's own 
repeated assertion that he was a Hebrew, — a Hebrew born 
of Hebrews. The celebrated ecclesiastical father, Jerome, 
noticed this contradiction, and therefore followed another 
tradition which pointed to the Jewish city of Giseala as the 
Apostle's birthplace, and supposed that he had removed to 
Tarsus as a child. This only very partially removes the dif- 
ficulty. It makes veiy little difference, however, whether he 
saw the light at Tarsus or not ; for though this city was a 
considerable place, rejoicing in special immunities, — a centre 
of commercial industry, a seat of philosophy and general cul- 
ture sometimes mentioned in a breath with Athens and Alex- 
andria, and the cradle of sundry men of distinction, — yet in 
an}' case Paul's education and development were quite unin- 
fluenced by Greek culture. He was a stranger to Greek 
philosoplxy, literature, and eloquence, and even after he had 
spent years in the society of Greeks he still had great diffi- 
culty in writing their language, and nearly alwaj's dictated 
his letters. 2 Finally, we are told in Acts that he was edu- 

i See p. 2. 

' 2 Galatians vi. 11 ; Philemon verse 19 ; Romans xvi. 22 ; 1 Corinthians xvi 
21. 



62 Z APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 

cated in Jerusalem, in the school of Gamaliel, and was still 
young at the time of Stephen's mailyrdom. Against this it 
may be urged that he shows no signs of having paid any 
attention to the Baptist, and was not at Jerusalem when 
Jesus was crucified. 1 

What changed this persecutor of the community into the 
most zealous of all the preachers of that faith which he had 
formerly laid waste? To this great question we have un- 
fortunately no direct answer from the man himself. He 
simply tells us in general terms that God had destined and 
formed him from his birth for the Apostolate, and emphati- 
cally denies that he was brought to better thoughts, or that 
his views of the gospel had been determined or modified after 
his conversion by the influence, the preaching, or the explana- 
tions of any Apostle, Evangelist, or other believer whatever. 
We also note that he was at Damascus when the great revo- 
lution in his faith took place ; and that when Jesus, whom he 
had previously regarded as a blasphemer, became to him the 
Christ, the Son of God, he very soon, if not immediately, 
felt impelled to take up the mission to the heathen as his 
special task. 2 

The book of Acts, on the contrary, goes into detail upon 
this point. So deeply does the author feel the importance of 
vindicating against the Jewish-Christians Paul's immediate 
call to his office by the Christ, that he gives the stor} T of his 
conversion three times over, — once in the course of the his- 
tory, and twice afterwards in addresses which he puts upon 
the lips of Paul. 3 

When Saul had witnessed the stoning of the first martyr, 
says the book of Acts, he w r as filled with rage against the 
community ; broke in upon the faithful from house to house, 
armed with the high priest's authority ; dragged men, and 
even women, before the authorities to be hurled into prison ; 
rejoiced when the} T were put to death ; had many of them 
scourged in the synagogues, or compelled them to revile 
Jesus as a false prophet ; and even followed up the persecu- 
tion into foreign cities. Thus, he asked and obtained a 
written commission from the high priest or the Sanhedrim to 
present to the chiefs of the synagogues at Damascus, eight 
days' journey from Jerusalem ; hoping, with such credentials, 
to succeed in bringing any followers of the Nazarene he 

1 Philemon verse 9. 2 Galatians i. 12, 15-17 

8 Acts ix. 1 ff., xxii. 3 ff., xxvi. 9 ff. 



APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 523 

might find there, whether man or woman, in chains to Jeru- 
salem. But as he was on his way, and had almost reached 
Damascus, there suddenly shone and streamed about him a 
light before which the blaze of the mid-day sun grew pale. 
It was the divine glory that surrounds the exalted Christ. 
He fell to the earth and heard a voice cry : " Saul, Saul ! why 
persecutest thou me? " t; Who art thou, Lord? " he replied 
in terror. "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest," said the 
voice. "It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks;" 
(that is to say, "It is vain for thee to endeavor to resist my 
power, like an obstinate bullock kicking against the ox- 
goad.") "Lord, what wouldst thou have me to do?" he 
asked. " Stand up ! " was the reply, " and go into Damas- 
cus, where the task laid on thee by God will be told thee." 
Then Saul arose, but the heavenly glory had struck him 
blind, and his companions had to lead him by the hand. 

The}* took him into the cit}', to what was called the Straight 
Street, and to the house of a certain Judas, where he spent 
three days in contemplation and pra}*er, in total blindness, 
and too much depressed, ashamed, and bewildered to eat or 
drink. Then, as he prayed, he had a vision in which a cer- 
tain Ananias, a follower of Jesus, came to him to lay his 
hands upon him and restore his sight. At the very same 
moment the Lord appeared to this Ananias himself, who was 
a man of rigid piety according to the Law, and was held in 
high esteem by the Jews of Damascus. He commanded him 
to go to Saul, and told him in what street and house he would 
find him. Ananias pleaded that Saul was a furious perse- 
cutor ; but the Lord only repeated his command the more 
emphatically, and assured him that his former adversary was 
to be a chosen instrument for the preaching of the Christ to 
heathen, to kings, and to Israelites, and would brave suffer- 
ings both manifold and heavy in the cause. Ananias obeyed, 
came to Saul in the name of Jesus, and laid his hands upon 
him. Then it seemed as if scales fell from the eyes of Saul ; 
and when Ananias told him of his mission, and the glorious 
task that awaited him, he rose up and was baptized, and then 
refreshed himself with food. 

So far the author of Acts. We have combined his three 
narratives into one, so as to miss nothing ; but may notice 
that he shows great carelessness in saj'ing on one occasion 
that Saul's companions fell down with him to the earth on 
seeing the heavenly glory, and on another that they stood 
still in bewilderment ; on one that they heard the voice but 



524 APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 

saw no one, on another that they saw the light but heard 
no one speak. In other respects the emphasis falls upon dif- 
ferent speakers in the narrative, according to the audience 
and the purpose which have drawn it forth. 1 As for its 
credibilit}^, we cannot believe that the Christ realty appeared 
to Paul and conversed with him, as the author represents, and 
struck him blind by his glor}\ Again, we know upon Paul's 
own authority that the part here played by Ananias, if 
not his very existence, is a pure fiction ; for he tells us ex- 
pressly that no man whatsoever exercised any influence upon 
this crisis of his life. But in spite of all this it is not im- 
possible that a trustworthy tradition lies at the foundation of 
this stor}* of the vision near Damascus, — a tradition drawn 
from Paul's own preaching, but afterwards elaborated and 
embellished ; for we ma}' regard it as almost certain that he 
saw the exalted Christ in a vision at the time of his conver- 
sion. 2 Paul himself of course believed that the Christ had 
come in person from above, had revealed himself to him, and 
suddenly arrested him in his career ; but we, on the other 
hand, feel bound to attempt the explanation both of the 
vision and the conversion from Paul's own inner life. The 
materials are supplied by his own letters, and especially 
the information the}' give us as to his general conceptions 
and style of argument, his character and physical con- 
stitution, his relations with the Twelve, and other such 
circumstances. 

Let us give a concise account of what we gather from 
these sources. 

Why was Paul such a furious persecutor of the community? 
Could he conceive of an}' more joyful and glorious news than 
that which had called the community into life and still sus- 
tained it, to which its spokesmen and the very fact of its ex- 
istence bore ceaseless and emphatic testimony? Could any 
thing be more welcome to him than the news that he who was 
to mount the throne of the Messiah had come in very truth, 
as the fullest pledge 8 of the instant dawn of the Golden Age ? 
No! He could conceive no news more glorious, — if only 
he could have believed it ! But the Nazarene had died upon 
the cross, and thereby had proved himself a lying prophet. 
Before as well as after Paul's conversion the death of Jesus 

1 See chap. x. p. 611. 

2 1 Corinthians xv. 8, ix. 1 ; compare 2 Corinthians xii. 1. 
8 See p. 64. 



APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 525 

on the cross was unquestionably the one point upon which the 
whole thing seemed to him to hinge. 1 One would judge from 
his letters that Jesus only came for the sake of being crucified 
and raised up from the shadow-land ; and just as the cross 
was afterwards his gloiy, so it was his one great stumbling- 
block while he still retained his Jewish Messianic beliefs. 
Surel}* this preaching of a Messiah who had suffered an infa- 
mous death must have appeared to him as something worse 
than an absurdit}', — as a positive abomination. Even the 
Twelve of course saw that the cross was in direct contradic- 
tion with the traditional doctrine of retribution and the na- 
tional expectations ; and the truth was that the}' had never 
been able to remove this contradiction. All they could do 
was to throw the blame upon the people and their leaders ; 
declare that the resurrection had annulled the cross ; appeal to 
the Scripture in proof that it had all been preordained and 
foretold by God ; 2 and probably add that the death of Jesus 
had been a sacrifice of atonement for the people's want of 
obedience 3 (as indicated in the prophecy about the servant 
of the Lord) , while at the same time it was the sacrifice to 
initiate the glorious kingdom of God. 4 But Paul was far too 
keen-sighted and deep-thinking a theologian to be content 
with so superficial and undecided a view. If we put ourselves 
into the Jewish attitude of mind, — that is to say, if we see 
and endeavor to demonstrate a special deed of God and there- 
fore a special divine purpose in such an event, — we shall 
soon perceive that a philosophic nature like Paul's, accus- 
tomed to weigh and to think out the consequences of every 
thing, could not rest in such evasions. For if they repre- 
sented the case truly, then this death, the death of the Son of 
God upon the cross, would after all be largely accidental and 
arbitrary, and the Christ would have died without aivv sufficient 
cause, — would have died for nothing. 5 Paul saw that who- 
ever accepted this Nazarene whom the Law had condemned 
and loaded with its curse placed himself outside the Law by 
that veiy fact, and renounced his allegiance to it. The Greek- 
speaking members of the community were already beginning 
to show what it must come to. In fact, the persecutor had 
at least a presentiment that if the crucified leader were really 

1 1 Corinthians i. 18, 23, 24, ii. 2; Galatians vi. 14, et seq. 

2 See pp. 465, 475, 486, 494-496, 507, 508, 516. 

3 1 Corinthians xv. 3; Revelation v. 9, et seq. ; compare vol. ii. pp. 420-425. 
510. 

4 See p. 416. 6 Galatians ii. 21. 



526 APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 

the Christ, then the great and vital question, " How am I to 
be justified before God ? " would have to receive a very differ- 
ent answer from the one it had hitherto met. Not, 4 ' By 
strict observance of the Law of the Lord," but, "By ac- 
cepting in faith what God has given me in this death." In 
that case the cross would open a new way to salvation ; and 
God would have said to men on Golgotha : u To accomplish 
your own justification is an impossibilit}'. Here I myself am 
offering the great and only sacrifice of atonement not only 
for individual shortcomings, but as a substitute for your own 
righteousness." In that case it would be impossible and im- 
pious to abide by the Law, for whoever sought salvation by 
the Law would be admitting that his Messiah had died for 
nothing. And what must this lead to? Any one who be- 
came an adherent of the Crucified, in giving up salvation by 
the Law must give up every thing, including all his national 
privileges, with it, — for he must look upon Jew and heathen 
as alike before God ; he must regard the partition wall be- 
tween them as thrown down ; he could have no possible 
reason for confining the Christ and his salvation to Abraham's 
posterhYy, which would have no special merit more than others ; 
for the divine grace would be the sole means of deliverance 
to all alike. In a word, the preaching of a crucified Messiah 
drew with it the overthrow of the whole Jewish religion. 
Awaj T then with so pestilent a heresy ! 

Such were the thoughts which rose before the mind of Paul ; 
not at first of course, in perfect clearness and in all their 
scope, but more as a presentiment, vague at first, but grad- 
ually gaining distinctness. What choice had he but to perse- 
cute ? And } T et, after all, was it so absolutely and obviousry 
impossible that God had really sent a new and higher revela- 
tion in this death upon the cross? Had he himself found 
peace, real peace, in this righteousness of the Law? Did it 
quench his burning thirst for truth and holiness, give rest to 
his tossed and harassed soul, and reconcile him with his God? 
Alas, it did not ! His unswerving loyalty to truth, his in- 
tense religious feeling, forced this answer from him. And 
then as he fought against these Nazarenes, not only with out- 
ward force, but with the weapons of argument and Scripture, 
as he stood up against them in the sjnagogues to drive them 
to bay with his incisive arguments, new difficulties rose before 
him. There in the Scripture stood the suffering servant of the 
Lord by the side of the mighty son of David ! He himself 
yearned for the Messianic salvation ; but he well knew that it 



APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 527 

could only be given to a righteous people : and was Israel 
either righteous now, or in the way of becoming so? Alas, 
no ! Then wmat if God — inasmuch as the previously offered 
and accepted means of salvation, namely the Law, had 
proved inadequate — had realty opened this new way? What 
if the great Redeemer and Comforter, before appearing in his 
gkuy, had indeed died a death of atonement, and so had 
opened the kingdom of God to the unrighteous, and put all 
who believed in him into their true relationship towards God 
by the force of this their faith? And did not all that he 
heard of Jesus from the mouth of his followers, his golden 
sajings and his holy life, his gentleness and power, his self- 
consecration and obedience, make an impression of perfect 
righteousness upon him which he could not shake off? No ! 
it was impossible. The Law and the cross were and must 
remain in irreconcilable contradiction. It was impossible ; 
for it would involve the annulling of the dispensation or- 
dained by God for salvation, and the cancelling of Israel's 
election. But then if for a moment Jesus were supposed 
really to be the Messiah, would not the cross be as much or- 
dained by God for salvation as the Law had been ? And was 
it so certain that the calling of the heathen was no part of the 
divine scheme? Well, be all that as it might, what really 
settled the whole matter was that the cross itself proved this 
Nazarene not to be the Messiah. That cross was an unmis- 
takable judgment of God against him ; was the irrefragable 
proof, which all might read, that God had rejected him. Now 
his own disciples admitted that all this would be unanswera- 
ble had not God raised him up again ! " But," said they, " he 
rose again and we saw him ! Peter, the Twelve, more than 
five hundred brethren at once, James, all the Apostles. He 
appeared to us in glory from on high ! " A lie ! cried the 
persecutor. But could he really abide b} T this answer? A 
lie? There was nothing of the impostor in what he had 
picked up or heard about the Master, nor was there any ap- 
pearance of deceit in what he saw of the disciples. Suppose 
he really had risen ! Then all would be clear enough. Why 
should not it be true ? 

No, it could not be true ! He would not suffer the thought 
for a single moment. His zeal for the Law and the tradition 
waked with fresh force within him. Awaj T with these here- 
tics ! Search them out ! force them to revile this Jesus ! and 
if they will not, hurl them into prison and condemn them to 
death ! I lis fury was redoubled by the very fact of his vacil- 



528 APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 

lation. Now Paul was a man of nervous and excitable tem- 
perament, — an impetuous and fiery spirit in a weak bod}*- 
More than once, in times of great perplexity or at dangerous 
crises, his system was so overwrought that he became deaf 
and blind to the external world, while visions or revelations 
were for a time vouchsafed to him, and utter prostration sub- 
sequently paid the price of the strain. 1 Moreover, this un- 
wearied and impetuous zealot, for what he held to be the truth 
of God, was of an}" thing but a cruel disposition. On the 
contrary, the utmost tenderness and depth of feeling and the 
truest humanity were a part of his character, and he must 
have done violence to his own nature in becoming a persecu- 
tor. 2 And when he witnessed the joyful securhvv, the exalted 
might of faith, the peaceful courage in the face of death which 
characterized the martyrs, 3 how could he help being constantly 
shaken in his purpose and his conviction? Suppose this 
Jesus really had risen again and appeared to his friends ! 
In that case he (Paul) had been fighting against God up to 
that hour, and was fighting against Him still ! But it could 
not be ! He must not and would not admit the thought ! 
Meanwhile, as he set his teeth against the nascent conviction, 
the image of the risen Master, shining with the glory of hea- 
ven, laid hold of his imagination in spite of himself. The 
strain increased. Determined to smother his own doubts, he 
journeyed to the distant Damascus to persecute the fugitives 
even there ! On his way, all that he had thought and lived 
and fought through rushed once more upon his soul. That 
question, " What if he really did ? " forced itself into his mind, 
do what he would. The witness of the Scripture ; the ac- 
counts he had heard of the Nazarene ; the experiences of his 
own heart ; the fervid longing of his own soul ; the invincible 
faith and courage of the disciples ; the scenes of terror which 
he himself was on the point of renewing ; the image of the 
glorified One as he was said to have appeared, — all these 
things chased each other through his brain. This resurrec- 
tion ! It was there that the whole matter lay ! Damascus 
was already before him ; but the tension had now reached its 
limit ! It was as if the heavenly glory burst upon his strain- 
ing eye, while the words broke upon his ear: " Saul, Saul! 
why persecutest thou me ? " 
The Apostle of the Gentiles was born ! 

1 Compare Galatians ii. 2 ; 2 Corinthians x. 10, xii. 1 ff, 

2 2 Corinthians xi. 29 ; Romans ix. 2, 3. 

3 See p. 508. 



APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 529 

We have endeavored to throw light upon Paul's gospel ; 1 
that is to sa}', his characteristic and original insight into the 
Christian truth by his conversion, and again to explain his 
conversion b} T the nature of his gospel. The truth of the 
explanation, considered as a mental history, is guaranteed in 
its main features b}' this harmony. Paul's persecuting zeal 
shows that from the first he perceived that belief in a crucified 
Messiah was incompatible with the Jewish religion. And his 
special call to preach the Son of God to the heathen is an 
equally strong proof of the same fact. 

But we must not infer that when the great change had 
taken place within him he was at once perfectly clear as to 
his faith, — knew what to think upon ever}' point, — and, in a 
word, had arrived at such consistent and satisfactory views 
that he was prepared to preach the Christ immediately. It 
was impossible ! The shock was so violent, the revolution 
seemed so enormous, the necessity of recovering himself — 
of reckoning with his own past self, of finding his bearings in 
this new religious world — was so great, that he must cer- 
tainly have withdrawn for some considerable time. For, in 
the first place, much of what we have said as to the signifi- 
cance and consequences of faith in the Crucified lmiy not 
have risen before the mind of Paul with any sharpness of 
outline until after his conversion ; and, at an}' rate, as long 
as he rejected the faith many of its consequences can only 
have been dimly felt by him ; nor can they have combined 
into a distinct and definite conception until that faith had 
become his own, and had been fortified in his heart against 
all assaults of doubt. Hitherto he had regarded these things 
with a hostile eye, and had only forced them to their results 
to show how bad they were. It was very different to think 
them over and think them through with sj'mpathetic earnest- 
ness, now that they had acquired the intensest fascination for 
him. And since he never doubted for a moment, to the veiy 
last, in the divine origin of the Law and the prophets, he 
must have been keenly sensible of a difficulty which impera- 
tively demanded a solution. It was the difficulty of bringing 
God's ancient revelation into its true connection with the new 
one, and so explaining the significance and intention of the 
first as to make its transitory office consistent with its divine 
character. Only b} T solving this problem could he gain a con- 
viction as firm, as compact, and as complete^ rounded as the 
one he had relinquished. 

1 Romans ii. 16, xvi. 25 , 2 Corinthians iv. 3, xi. 4 ; Galatians i. 11, 12, 6, ii. 2. 7. 

vol. in. 23 



530 APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 

At the same time he knew very well that it would be use- 
less to seek the light he needed from men, — from flesh and 
blood, as he expressed it. 1 That was certain. He was not 
at all the man to surrender himself to another's guidance 
and walk by another's light. Besides, even had it been oth- 
erwise, he could not possibly have expected any help from the 
Twelve ; for they still failed to see even as much as his eyes, 
quickened by hostility, had discerned before his conversion, 
when he was still a persecutor. They still failed to see that 
whoever became an adherent of the Crucified had broken with 
the Law, and must regard the cross as the greatest deed of 
God. So he left the busy Damascus and betook himself to 
Arabia, to some quiet place in the neighborhood. Here he 
remained a considerable time, and the interval of repose bore 
rich fruits for his inner life ; so that when he returned to active 
work he had in truth become a new man, and was fully 
equipped with his new conviction. During the next five-ancl- 
twenty 3*ears he was far from standing still. He expanded 
and consolidated his views in the midst of his restless activ- 
it3 T , and indeed in consequence of it, and more especiahy in 
the coarse of the hot controversies in which he was involved. 
But it was now that the great revolution took place, and that 
the formation of his views and character alike was completed 
in principle and in essence. 

We must remember that this transition involved a com- 
plete change in the foundations alike of his religious and his 
moral life, and therefore an enormous strain, not only upon 
his intellectual but still more upon his moral powers. Was 
it not a sublime resolve, involving the stern suppression of 
all self-love and self-satisfaction, thus to break with his own 
past, unconditionally to relinquish all the results of his ser- 
vices, all in which he had hitherto gloried, to which he had 
devoted himself with heart and soul, and in w T hich he had 
excelled so man}- of his companions, henceforth to find shame 
and humiliation in the prosecuting zeal that had been his 
glory? 2 The substance of his preaching henceforth ran: 
u Not by the Law, but by grace, not b} T works, but 03- faith, 
we are saved ; and therefore all distinction between Jew and 
heathen is henceforth abolished ! " And this shows that the 
Jew within him had died for ever ; but not, we may be sure, 
without causing him the deepest trouble and affliction of soul, 
— not without a long and desperate wrestle for the very life 

1 Galatians i. 16, 17; compare p. 319. 

2 Philippians iii. 4 ff. ; 2 Corinthians xi. 21 ff. ; Galatians i. 13, 14. 



APOSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 531 

All this he ascribed to the influence of the cross upon him. 
His whole soul turned to the Christ who had suffered himself 
to be nailed to the cross in obedience to God and in love to 
mankind, and had taken pit}' upon him, his enenry and perse- 
cutor. Nay, he felt so closely bound to him that it was as if 
he had himself been crucified with him, or in his person ; had 
died with him to the Law, to the world, and to sin ; had risen 
with him from the regions of the dead, henceforth a new man, 
living like the Christ, and with him, to God alone. He felt 
himself in such close communion with Christ that it was as if 
his former self — the self-seeking Jew — had gone, and as if 
Christ himself lived henceforth in him. 1 Did not the spirit 
of Christ — and what was that but Christ himself ? — work in 
him and control him more and more ? The life he now lived 
was in truth a new, a holy, an eternal life, free from the Law 
with its restraints and curse. He no longer knew any thing 
of a Lawgiver in heaven, whom he must serve in trembling, 
but only of a Father whose grace was his all, love of whom 
was now the principle of his obedience and of his whole moral 
life, whose Spirit dwelt in him as the pledge of a blessed 
future. The Law could not form man to obedience, for man's 
carnal nature — the fountain and the seat of sin — made the 
Law powerless. But when Christ laid aside upon the crows 
the flesh, the carnal nature, which he had received at his 
birth, then upon that same cross the carnal nature of all who 
should cleave to him and become one with him was as good 
as slain, and with the flesh the power of sin was destroyed. 
Then they might not, and could not, fail any longer to live 
for God bj- the Spirit. 2 Thus the whole inner life of Paul 
hinged upon the contrast between Law and faith, sin and 
grace, flesh and spirit, Adam and Christ. 3 Adam was the 
representative of the old, carnal, sinful race of man ; Christ 
of the new, spiritual, and holy race that would be revealed in 
all its gloiy at the coming of the kingdom of God. To Christ, 
this second Adam, Paul ascribed a pre-existence in heaven, 
as the Son of God or t}'pe of humanity, before he took upon 
himself the carnal nature in order to redeem the posterity of 
Adam. 4 Like all the believers, he expected him to return 
from heaven shortly, to complete the work of salvation. 
Meanwhile, it was his task to preach this Christ to the world, 

i Galatians vi. 14, ii. 19, 20; 2 Corinthians v. 14 ff. ; Romans vi. 4 ff. 
2 Romans viii. 1 ff. ; 2 Corinthians i. 22; Galatians v. 5. 
8 1 Corhr. hians xv. 21 ff., 45 ff . ; Romans v. 12 ff. 

4 Galatians iv. 4; 1 Corinthians xv. 47; 2 Corinthians viii. 9; Roma as viii. 
3 Philippians ii. 5 ff. 



532 APOSTLE OE THE GENTILES. 

especially to the heathen world, hitherto deprived of the glad 
tidings, — so that when he should come he might find the world 
prepared and believing. 

How long Paul sta} T ed in Arabia we do not know ; but it must 
have been several months, and perhaps a } T ear or two. He was 
probably residing all this time m some village on the great 
plain that stretches south-west of the river Euphrates, and is 
known as the Arabian desert. There he supported himself b}~ 
his trade, while his heart and head were ceaseless!}' busied with 
deep speculations, with the examination of the Scripture, with 
the internal conflict of his soul, and with pra} T er to God. As 
soon as he had come to a clear and definite conclusion, he 
came back from his retirement, a new man in very truth, 
and began the work of his Lord. He chose Damascus, the 
nearest great city, — Damascus which he had once before 
approached upon so different a mission, — as the scene of 
his first labors. And here for the first time, accordingly, the 
Christ was preached to the heathen world by a preacher who 
distinctly knew what he was doing, and did it on the strength 
of an established principle. For though Paul ma} T have cho- 
sen the s} T nagogue as his basis, there is no reasonable doubt 
that from the first he appeared as the Apostle of the heathen. 1 
Bat it appears that before long his preaching was impeded, 
and his life, or at least his liberty, very seriously threatened, 
<o that he determined to fly. He tells us himself 2 that the 
governor of King Aretas, to whose territoiy Damascus just 
then at any rate belonged, had set watches at the gates of the 
city to seize him. But he succeeded in reaching the house 
of a friend who lived on the walls ; and thence, under cover 
of the darkness, he was let down in a basket from a window 
in the wall and escaped. Then he went to Jerusalem. He 
had not been there since his conversion, now three } T ears ago. 
He had not the least intention of preaching in the city, for 
the field of his labors lay not there ; but he desired to make 
acquaintance with Peter, the most prominent of the inner 
circle of the friends and disciples of Jesus. So he stayed 
with him in his own house ; but he met none of the other 
Apostles only James the brother of Jesus, who stood with 
Peter at the head ©f the community of Jerusalem. It seems, 
therefore, that he kept his visit a secret, and avoided contact 
both with his former associates and with the community. 
After a visit of only fifteen days, he left his host and the City 
of the Temple, again to devote all his powers to his task aa 

1 Galatians i. 16. 2 2 Corinthians xi. 32, 33; compare p. 122. 



A.POSTLE OF THE GENTILES. 5o3 

the Apostle of the heathen, — this time in the regions of Syria 
and Cilicia. 

But before accompanying Paul upon his journey, we must 
mention that the writer of Acts gives an account of what 
took place after the conversion, which differs widely, and 
evidently not b} r accident, from that of the Apostle himself. 
He omits eveiy thing that Paul urges in proof of his origi- 
nality and independence of the Twelve. His retirement, his 
stay in Arabia, his three years' absence from Jerusalem, the 
privacy of his intercourse with Peter, — all disappear without 
a trace ! He is made to come forward at Damascus, without 
any interval, and begin preaching that Jesus is the Christ. 
Moreover, his preaching is directed to the Jews, who are full 
of amazement to hear him say these things, and, since they 
cannot refute him, make a murderous design against his life. 
He escapes, as above described, and goes to Jerusalem to 
join the community there. But the brethren are suspicious 
of him until Barnabas introduces him to the Apostles, tells 
them how Christ appeared to the persecutor, and how he has 
since been preaching at 'Damascus. Thus introduced and 
recommended, he associates on intimate terms with the 
Twelve, preaches with them in Jerusalem and the neighbor- 
hood, 1 and directs his special efforts to the conversion of the 
Greek Jews ; but they plot against his life, upon which the 
brethren safely conve} T him to Csesarea, and send him to hi? 
native city, Tarsus. This account, as we see at once, con- 
tradicts that of Paul himself in almost eve^ particular , 
though the Apostle certifies the truth of his own statement in 
the most solemn manner: " As for what I am writing, be- 
hold ! I declare before God that I lie not." Elsewhere, 2 in a 
speech he puts upon the lips of Paul, the author still more 
evidently betra} T s his design of making his readers suppose 
that Paul did not begin preaching to the heathen at once and 
of his own motion, but only in consequence of the obstinate 
resistance of the Jews, and veiy much against his own de- 
sires and intentions ; for he makes him sa} r that after his 
conversion he returned to Jerusalem, and that as he was 
piling in the temple he saw the Christ, in a transport, and 
that he commanded him to leave the city at once, for he would 
not get a hearing there. He urged that, since the people of 
Jerusalem had known him as a furious persecutor, they could 
not fad to attach importance to his preaching now. But it 
was all in vain ; he must travel far away to the heathen ! 

1 Acts ix. 28 (read " coming in and going out of Jerusalem"); compare 
xxvi. 20. 2 Acts xxii. 17-21. 



534 FIRST MISSION TO THE HEATHEN. 

Chapter V. 

THt FIRST MISSION TO THE HEATHEN. 

Galatians I. 21-24; Acts XI. 22-30, XII. 24-XIV. ; Luke X 1 ff., 

17-20. 

PAUL himself only gives us a few of the leading facts that 
relate to his appearing as a missionary in the regions 
of SjTia and Cilicia, — to his preaching and his fortunes there, 
or in general to the opening period of his labors as the Apostle 
of the gentiles, — and even what he does tell us comes out 
for the most part incidentally. The only point upon which 
he lays any stress is the absolute independence which always 
characterized his work. He did not stand in any position of 
dependence whatever to the Twelve or the primitive com- 
munity. He had received no commission, no instructions, no 
hints from them ; and what is more he did not once go to 
Jerusalem during the whole of this period of eleven years. 
Very possibly he was not in any kind of communication with 
the believers there ; for when we read that the communities 
of Judaea, to whom he was not so much as known by face, 
hearing that the former persecutor was now a preacher of 
faith in the Crucified, glorified God in him, we cannot help 
suspecting that they were but imperfectly acquainted with the 
substance of his preaching, for otherwise their satisfaction 
would have been far from unmingled. Paul informs us fur- 
ther that his work was richly blessed, — an unmistakable sign 
of the Divine approval, — so that at the close of these eleven 
years his gospel was spread in mairy quarters among the 
heathen, and he had established numerous communities. 1 
His headquarters were at Antioch. 2 Of his numerous fellow- 
laborers he only mentions three ; namely, Barnabas, Titus, — 
a born heathen, whom he had probably converted himself, 
since he certainly was not subjected either to the Law or to 
circumcision, — and Timotheus, a convert of his own and 
afterward his frequent travelling companion. 3 As we go on 
we shall frequently meet with these three men, as well as other 
friends and assistants of Paul. 

1 Galatians ii. 2, 7, 8. 2 Galatians ii. 11, 13. 

3 Galatians ii. 1, 3, 13; 1 Corinthians iv. 17; compare 2 Corinthians ii. lb, 
&t seq. 



FIRST MISSION TO THE HEATHEN. 535 

The book of Acts makes up 03- its fulness for the meagre- 
ness of Paul's own statements ; and fortunately it contains 
much that we may safely accept as true concerning this 
period. But this does not apply to its version of the begin- 
ning of the mission ; for there the originality of Paul's gospel 
is again obscured and his own statements contradicted. We 
are told that Barnabas was sent to Antioch b} T the primitive 
community, in consequence of a report that a body of con- 
verted heathen had been formed there, 1 and that he rejoiced 
in this extension of the gospel, and confirmed the new disci- 
ples in their faith. But as their numbers rapidly increased 
he went to Tarsus to find Saul, and brought him back with 
him to the capital of S\Tia, where they both took part in the 
meetings of the faithful for a full year, and instructed a great 
multitude. The interposition of Barnabas, by whose side at 
first Saul takes a second place, is open to almost as grea^ 
suspicion here as in the passage where he is represented as 
introducing Saul to the Apostles ; and this early interference 
with the communit} T at Antioch, on the part of the believers 
at Jerusalem, dispatching Barnabas as their plenipotentiary, 
cannot be accepted with any confidence. After the end of 
that year, continues the author, there came certain prophets 
to Antioch from the City of the Temple. One of these inspired 
men, whose name was Agabus, foretold a universal famine. 
So the believers determined, each according to his means, 
to make contributions to alleviate the sufferings that threat- 
ened the communities in Judaea, and to send the money to 
their elders. Barnabas and Saul brought it over just at the 
time of the martyrdom of James and the imprisonment and 
deliverance of Peter ; and when the}' had acquitted them- 
selves of their task, they returned to their own sphere of 
labor, taking with them a certain John Mark, — probably the 
same who is elsewhere called the nephew of Barnabas. 2 It is 
true that in the fourth year of Claudius (44 a.d.) there was 
a famine in Judaea, though not all over the world ; but Paul 
was never at Jerusalem during the whole period now under 
discussion. The sequel of the histoiy will make the origin 
and purpose of this misrepresentation quite clear. 3 

But our author is perfectly right in bringing out the ex- 
treme importance of Antioch as the base and centre of Paul's 
work, and of the conversion of the heathen generally, in this 
important initial period. Here, he tells us, the disciples first 

1 See p. 517. 2 Colossians iv. 10 ; compare p. 500- 

3 See chapter x. p. 611. 



53b FIRST MISSION TO THE HEATHEN. 

received the name of Christians ; by which he means that 
here the gospel first detached itself from Judaism and as- 
serted its place in the public estimation as a new and inde- 
pendent movement. And it is certainly a fact that whereas 
the earliest confessors of Jesus at Jerusalem gradually fell 
more and more completely under the influence of the syna- 
gogue, as we shall presently see, Antioch became the true 
cradle and nursery of Christianity. Here, under the influ- 
ence of Paul, Christianity sprang into life as a new religion. 
In a certain sense this name of Christian owed its origin to a 
blunder. As Herodian was derived from Herod and Pompeian 
from Pompey, so Christian was derived from Christ, under 
the erroneous impression that it was a proper name ; whereas 
it was realty, of course, nothing but the Greek translation of 
Messiah (anointed), and simply indicates the rank of Jesus 
as monarch in the kingdom of God. This name was given 
to the believers by their heathen fellow-citizens in mockery, 
because they were always speaking of Christ as their lord ; 
but the} r themselves soon adopted the name as a badge of 
honor. It was a matter of importance to the new religious 
movement to possess a name and a flag of its own, so to 
speak. Some scholars think the name must have been coined 
at Pome, and not at Antioch, because of the Latin termina- 
tion an. Finally, we may remark that Antioch was the first 
city in the world after Rome and Alexandria, was the cap- 
ital of the East, had half a million of inhabitants, and was a 
centre of Greek culture. It was in eveiy way qualified for 
the part it had to play in the history of Christianity. But 
we must not suppose that the community consisted entirely 
of heathen, whether Greeks or Syrians, for the numerous 
Jewish population also contributed its share. All the believ- 
ers, however, held brotherly intercourse with one another ; l 
circumcision and the laws as to food and cleanliness gave 
place to faith ; the life of love superseded the narrow worship 
of forms ; and national exclusiveness was expelled by the 
common hope in the Christ and his salvation. 

But now let us listen to the author of Acts without further 
interrupting him ! 

The leaders of the community — whether prophets who 
spoke by the Spirit in inspired words, or teachers who provi- 
ded instruction — were Barnabas, Simeon Niger (that is the 
black), Lucius of Cyrene, Menahem, foster brother or play- 

i Galatians ii. 12, 13, 16. 



FIRST MISSION TO THE HEATHEN. 537 

fellow of Herod Antipas, and Saul. Now, as they were all 
conscientiously performing their tasks, the command came to 
them by divine inspiration to separate Barnabas and Saul 
for the work to which the Holy Spirit had called them. It 
was a missionary journey ; and the two were consecrated to 
the task by the laying on of hands with prayer and fasting. 

John Mark accompanied them as their attendant, to per- 
form, baptisms and do other subordinate work ; and they 
embarked at Seleucia for C} T prus, the native country of Bar- 
nabas and other Christians of Antioch. They landed at Sal- 
amis, where they preached in the synagogues ; and then they 
travelled through the island from east to west till the} r came 
to Paphos, where the Roman governor resided. Now Ser- 
gius Paulus, who held the post of governor at the time, was 
a discerning man, and he summoned Paul and Barnabas into 
his presence and lent an ear to their preaching of Christ. 
But a certain Jewish magician and false prophet, Barjesus, 
or El} T mas as he called himself (this name being the Arabic 
for sage) , was stajing with the governor ; and as he was 
afraid of losing his influence, he opposed the new comers, 
and tried to make the Roman adverse to the faith. But Saul 
rebuked the wicked deceiver with the utmost severity and 
struck him with temporal blindness, thereby removing the 
last trace of hesitation from the governor's mind. Here we 
may notice that Saul is henceforth called by his Roman name 
of Paul, as appropriate to the Apostle of the heathen, and 
perhaps also to commemorate the conversion of Sergius 
Paulus, the first distinguished heathen convert. Henceforth, 
too, both on this journey and afterwards, Paul becomes the 
principal actor. 

At Paphos they embarked again and landed at Perge, in 
Pamph}iia ; but here John deserted them and went back tc 
Jerusalem. Paul and Barnabas, nothing daunted, continued 
their journey northward till they reached Antioch-in-Pisidia. 
Here the} T went to the synagogue upon the Sabbath, and 
after the passages from the Law and Prophets had been read 
they were invited b} r the superintendent to address the con- 
gregation. 1 Paul began, and reminded them of all God's 
benefits to Israel from the time of bondage in Egypt down to 
the days of David ; and then spoke of Jesus as the promised 
Saviour of David's house, preceded and announced by John 
the Baptist, and now preached to them, the Jews and prose- 
lytes of Asia. The people of Jerusalem and their leaders 

1 Compare pp. 140, 141. 
23* 



538 FIRST MISSION TO THE HEATHEN. 

had indeed condemned this Jesus, innocent as he was ; had 
given him to Pilate to be put to death, and had buried 
him. All this they had done in their ignorance, though in 
accordance with the predictions of the Scripture. But God 
had raised him up again ; he had appeared to his faithful 
friends, and was now being preached in that sjmagogue as 
the fulfilment of God's promises in the Psalms and in the 
Prophets, 1 especially by his resurrection. Through him, 
therefore, there was forgiveness of sins ; and in all those 
respects in which the law of Moses fell short of justifjing 
man, he might be justified by God through faith in Christ. 
But woe to him who rejected him ! After this discourse 
Paul and Barnabas left the s3~nagogue, but not till the urgent 
request of their hearers had drawn from them a promise to 
renew their preaching on the following Sabbath. Many Jews 
and proselytes went with them at once and were completely 
converted. Next week almost the whole city had assembled 
at the bouse of praj T er. This offended the Jews, who desired 
to exclude the heathen from the Messianic salvation. So 
they opposed Paul and reviled Jesus. Then the two preach- 
ers roundly declared that, though the gospel must certainly 
'be offered first to the Jews upon every occasion, yet since 
they rejected it and excluded themselves they were fully jus- 
tified in preaching to the heathen, according to the ancient 
oracle.' 2 What joyful words for the heathen ! Many of 
them believed. The word of the Lord spread through Pisidia. 
But the Jews induced some distinguished women of heathen 
birth, but Jewish faith, to incite the authorities to persecute 
and expel Paul and Barnabas, who shook the dust off their 
feet as a testimony against their obstinate opponents, 3 and 
went on to Iconium, the capital of Lycaonia, leaving a grate- 
ful community full of promise behind them. Here again they 
preached in the s3magogue, converted a great number of 
Jews and heathen, and remained a considerable time un- 
dismayed by the hostilhYy of a host of Jews and the heathen 
the} T stirred up ; for they were encouraged b} T the support of 
the Lord who gave them power to perform signs and won- 
ders. The city was divided into two camps, for and against 
the Apostles. But when they heard of a design to maltreat 
and stone them, they fled to two other cities of the same dis- 
trict, — Lystra and Derbe, — where they came forward again 
as bearers of the gospel. 

1 Psalms ii. 7, xvi. 10 ; Isaiah lv. 3. 2 Isaiah xlix. 6. 

8 See pp. 182-184. 



FIRST MISSION TO THE HEATHEN. 539 

At Lystra an unhappy man, who had been a cripple from 
his birth, was among their hearers. Paul turned a searching 
glance upon him, saw that he had faith to be cured, and cried 
aloud, "Stand up on } T our feet!" He sprang up instantly 
and walked like a sound man. The multitudes, on witness- 
ing this miraculous cure, raised the ciy, " They are gods who 
have come down to us in human form ! " The}' held Barna- 
bas, for Zens (Jupiter), the highest of the gods, and Paul, as 
the spokesman, for Hermes (Mercury), the interpreter and 
messenger of the gods ; but since they spoke in their own 
dialect the Apostles did not understand them, and only saw 
what they were about when the priest of Zeus brought oxen 
and wreaths of flowers to the gates of the temple at the en- 
trance of the city, and was going to offer a sacrifice to them 
at the head of the multitudes. Deepl}- shocked and full of 
indignation, Barnabas and Paul tore their garments and rushed 
out among the people, exclaiming: "Stop, stop! We are 
men like yourselves, and our very purpose in coming to you 
was to make 3^011 forsake these false deities and turn to the 
true God, the Creator of all things, who has hitherto held 
back all knowledge of himself from you, but yet has not been 
without witness in his countless benefits to } r ou." With such 
words they barely succeeded in drawing the people from their 
purpose. In this way general attention was immediately 
fixed upon them, and their labors were not fruitless. A com- 
munity of believers was established, and one of its most 
promising members was a certain Timotheus, the uncircum- 
cised son of a heathen and a Jewess. His pious mother and 
grandmother, who were both converted likewise, are else- 
where called Eunice and Lois. 1 But before long a violent end 
was put to the work at Lystra. Certain Jews came from An- 
tioch and Iconium, and incited the multitudes to stone Paul, 
after which the} 7 dragged him out of the city and left him for 
dead. But he still lived ; and as the disciples stood around 
him in sorrow, he rose up and entered the cit} T ; but left it on 
the following morning for Derbe, in company with Barnabas. 
Here, too, they stayed some time and made rnairy converts, 
among whom a certain Gaius is mentioned by name. 2 

After this they returned b} 7 the same route, strengthening 
their converts in the faith at Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, 
and exhorting them to be patient under the oppression they 
must still expect before the kingdom of God should come. 
After choosing elders in each community to manage its af- 

1 Acts xvi. 1, 2 ; 2 Timothy i. 5. 2 Acts xx. 4. 



540 FIRST MISSION TO THE HEATHEN. 

fairs, the} took leave of the brethren, commending them with 
prayer and fasting to the Lord in whom they now believed. 
Thus they returned to Perge, in Pamptrj'lia, where they 
preached once more, and then took ship at Attalia for An- 
tioch, whence the}^ had originally been sent out on their mis- 
sionaiy work. With thankful hearts they recounted to the 
assembled brethren all that God had done concerning them, 
and how he had permitted the heathen to embrace the faith. 
Then they settled for a time in Antioch again. 

With two reservations we may accept this narrative as 
substantially true. The first reservation refers to the mira- 
cles ; the second to Paul's method as a missionary. The 
miracles are not mere involuntary embellishments of the story ; 
they are something else and something more. It is a pari 
of the scheme of the book of Acts deliberately to ascribe to 
Paul, on these and subsequent occasions, the same or similai 
miracles to those which have already been ascribed to Peter. 
The judgment upon Elymas corresponds to that upon Ananias, 
the cure of the cripple at Lystra to that of the beggar at the 
gate Beautiful. 1 This remark will be found to throw light 
upon many details, alike in what we have already heard and 
in what is still to come. For instance, Peter, as we shall 
presently see, 2 had to contend with a sorcerer and to reject 
divine honors, just as Paul does here. Again, Paul's method 
in preaching is misrepresented with equal deliberation. In 
the first place he is made the emissary of others, and at first 
subordinate to Barnabas, — he who took such pride in his in 
dependence of all human authority ! But it is far more impor- 
tant }~et to observe that the discourses put into his mouth are 
entirely without the strongs-marked peculiarities of his very 
characteristic style and spirit. There is nothing distinctively 
Pauline in them. Even upon the single occasion when he is 
made to speak of the truly Pauline doctrine of justification, 
a more or less marked Jewish-Christian coloring is given to 
his words. 3 But the most important point of all is, that, 
throughout this narrative and the whole book of Acts, Paul is 
made to follow the fixed rule of addressing himself to the Jews 
first, and never feels at liberty to go to the heathen until the 
Jews have rejected him, — he who, according to the genuine 
sources of information, was profoundly conscious of being 
called distinctly as the Apostle to the heathen, and would no 

1 Compare p. 537 with p. 491, and p. 539 with p. 494. 

2 Acts viii. 18 ft\, x. 25, 26; see chapters x. p. 611, and vi. p. 544. 
8 Compare p. 537 with p. 525. 



FIRST MISSION TO THE HEATHEN. 541 

tonger hear of any distinction between Jew and Gentile, or 
any privilege of the former over the latter ! x These depar- 
tures from the historical facts are eminently suited to reveal 
the character of the Acts, the true significance of this 
book, and the prevailing current of feeling in the post- 
apostolic age. 

In other respects there is no reason to doubt the fidelity of 
the. account of this journey. A trustworthy tradition doubt- 
less lies at its foundation, especially as regards the principal 
places which Paul and Barnabas visited. The time occupied 
by the expedition must have been many months, and may 
have been several years, but we have no longer the means of 
determining it. That the missionaries started from Antioch 
with a special view to the conversion of the heathen needs 
no further proof than is supplied by their names ; for Barna- 
bas, too, is expressly called an Apostle of the heathen by 
Paul himself. 2 Of course the} T did not neglect the Jews, and 
the synagogue often furnished them with an advantageous 
point of departure ; but the main purpose and the main re- 
sult of the enterprise was the conversion of heathen upon a 
large scale. 

Such then was the result of Paul's appearance as a preacher, 
the fruit of his man}' 3-ears of toil in the regions of Syria and 
Cilicia. 3 The preaching of Christ to the heathen world was 
an accomplished fact ; not simply a local phenomenon of an 
exceptional and accidental character, but the bold and wide- 
spread embodiment of a principle thoroughly worked out. 

This is a fact of incalculable importance. Not only was 
the religious truth in the possession of which Israel rejoiced 
now preached to the heathen world and accepted by it, as the 
noblest prophets had foreseen ; but that peculiar heritage of 
Israel, that exclusive national privilege, the right of citizen- 
ship in the community of the Golden Age, was thrown open to 
the heathen on a footing of full equality of rights and privi- 
leges with the seed of Abraham. Nay, ere long the stub- 
bornness of the Jews was even destined to put them behind 
the heathen ! The point upon which the special stress must 
be laid is the fact that these heathen were not required to 
embrace Judaism ; for the gospel, though an Israelitish shoot, 
was grafted upon a foreign stem. The belief in God's unity, 

1 Acts xvii. 2, xiii. 46 ff., xviii. 6, xxviii. 26 ff . ; compare Galatians i. 16 
ii. 2. 7, 8, iii. 28 : Romans i. 14, iii. 21 ff., et seq. 

2 Galatians ii. 9. 3 Compare Acts xv. 23, 41. 



542 FIKST MISSION TO THE HEATHEN. 

the ancient principle of His holiness, the new principle of His 
love, and the hope of His kingdom were shaken free from the 
religious formalities and the whole religious law of the Jews, 
and were preached to the heathen. This Israelitish shoot 
was of necessrty modified by being grafted on another stem, 
and the Christ assumed a fresh character for the peoples who 
were strangers to the expectation of the Messiah, the Son 
of God. In a word, a new religion sprang into existence. 
The Grseco-Roman world had conceived a fresh germ of life ; 
the regeneration of mankind had begun ; the new age had 
broken ! 

This fact was destined to assume ever greater proportions 
and bring powers ever new to the work. The agents them- 
selves, meanwhile, were profoundly convinced that they were 
not advancing on their own impulse, in their own name, or on 
their own authority, but were commissioned by the Christ. 
This conviction, which was evidently well founded up to a 
certain point, 1 translated itself after the manner of the times 2 
into a stoiy about Jesus himself. When the Twelve had 
shown their incapacity, 3 so we read in the third Gospel, Jesus 
appointed seventy others, after the number of the nations of 
the heathen world, and sent them out, two by two, as he had 
formerly sent out the Twelve, 4 to every city and village, to 
prepare for his coming. The appointment and sending out 
of these disciples is recorded by the Evangelist at the begin- 
ning of the missionary journey of Jesus through Samaria ; 
that is to say, at the beginning of his labors among those who 
were not Jews. This combination is very characteristic and 
very happily conceived, though as a fact the mission of the 
Seventy and the journe}' through Samaria are both equally 
unhistorical. 5 Luke further transfers to these Seventy the 
words which Jesus really uttered to the Twelve when he 
spoke of the great harvest, of the lack of laborers for which 
God must make provision, of his disciples being like lambs 
among wolves, and especially of the conduct they must ob- 
serve upon their journeys. 6 Moreover, Luke adds a few 
fresh precepts, — that they are not to waste their time upon 
the way in mere courtesies, for there is much to do ; that 
wherever they go the} T are to eat what is set before them, the 
food and drink of the heathen, without troubling themselves 
about the Jewish laws concerning food and cleanness. 7 Then, 

1 See pp. 292 ff. 2 Compare pp. 308, 309, 518 ff. 

8 See pp. 190 ff., and 351 f. 4 See p. 182. 

5 See pp. 309, 310. 6 See pp. 177, 182, 184, 397, 398. 

7 See pp. 278-281, and Galatians ii. 12 ; 1 Corinthians x. 27. 



FTRST MISSION TO THE HEATHEN. 543 

£gain, Luke makes Jesus declare in one breath with that cry 
of woe over Bethsaida, Chorazin, and Capernaum, 1 that the 
rejection of the Seventy is equivalent to the rejection of the 
Christ himself; and when the}- return from their missionary 
efforts, he expressly points them out as the men to whom it is 
given to know the secrets of the gospel hidden to others, to 
whom the knowledge of the Father is vouchsafed, and who 
taste the blessings of salvation which prophets and kings had 
longed in vain to taste. 2 Finally, we read the following ac- 
count of their initial success, of the battle which they had to 
wage, and the divine power which supported them : — 

They returned to their Master in triumph, and told him 
how the demons had fled from those they possessed at the 
preaching of the Christ ; upon which the Master prepared 
them for a terrible resistance, but at the same time reas- 
sured them. " I saw Satan," he cried, " dart like a flash of 
lightning from his realm of air 3 down to the earth ! But as 
for } t ou, I have given you power to trample upon serpents and 
scorpions 4 and the whole arm}' of the Evil One, without suf- 
fering an}' hurt or injury. And yet rejoice, not because the 
demons are forced to }*ield to 3'ou, but because }~our names 
are written down by God ! " When we remember that the 
heathen world was held to be the devil's territoiy, and the 
false gods were looked upon as demons who ruled over their 
worshippers, we can well understand that the work of the 
preachers among the heathen was described as a conflict with 
Satan, and that the conversion of the heathen, both here and 
elsewhere, is presented under the form of exorcism or the 
cure of demoniacs. 5 But in all this toil the certainty of shar 
ing the blessings of the kingdom of God, which must be ex- 
pected ere long, remained the richest source of strength, of 
comfort, and of jo} r . 

Hitherto we have only mentioned or seen at work some 
few of these "Seventy," these messengers to the heathen: 
first, Philip and the preachers at Antioch ; then Paul and 
Barnabas, Titus and Timothy. In addition to them we shall 
soon greet other laborers ; but the first place can never be 
disputed with that great originator whose rich spirit and deep 
affections gave birth to the gospel for the heathen, and he 
must ever retain his indisputable claim to the title of honor, 
— the Apostle of the Gentiles. 

1 See p. 259. 2 See pp. 259, 190, 191, 162. 

3 Ephesians ii. 2. 4 Psalm xci. 13. 

6 See p. 518 ; Revelation ix. 20 ; 1 Corinthians x. 20 ; 2 Corinthians iv. 4: 
cottpve p. 134. 



544 COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES. 



Chapter VI. 

THE COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES. 

Galatians II. ; Acts XV. 

WE must now return to the communhVv at Jerusalem 
For fifteen years or more it had held its own and had 
even increased, in spite of more than one fierce persecution. 
Meanwhile various other communities had been founded else- 
where on Jewish soil, chiefly by the zealous and successful 
labors of Peter, who travelled about preaching from place to 
place. Of these labors we have but a veiy imperfect and dis- 
torted account in the book of Acts, 1 but the}- are established 
by the unequivocal testimony of Paul, which is above all sus- 
picion. 2 The original communhVy, however, which had once 
been the solitary guardian of the saving truth, which had 
braved the first dire shocks of the hostility of unbelieving 
countrymen, and which probably contained the greater part 
of the personal disciples of Jesus that yet remained, was still 
greatly looked up to by the rest, and naturally exercised a 
kind of authority over them. 

In the clearness of its views and the independence of its 
attitude toward Judaism the community had not advanced. 
Several causes combined towards this result. The mere 
course of time tended to obliterate the impression of the 
Master's freedom from the minds of the disciples. The at- 
mosphere in which they lived was saturated with orthodoxy 
and the worship of forms. Rigid and scrupulous Jews had 
joined the community of the Messiah, and had made their 
influence felt. Moreover, there were two special circum- 
stances which had exercised a decisive influence upon the 
brethren. With the first of these we are already familiar. 
It was the persecution and expulsion of the Greek-speaking 
believers, and the consequent banishment of the freer and 
more enlightened element from the community. The second 
circumstance was an orthodox movement in the bosom of 
Judaism itself, caused partly by the frantic demands of the 
emperor Caligula, — who claimed divine honors and attempted 
to set up his image in the temple (39, 40 a.d.), — and partly 

l Acts ix. 32 ff. ; see pp. 557, 558. 2 Galatia is ii. 7, 8. 



COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES. 545 

by the Pharisaic government of king Herod Agrippa I. 
(41-44 a.d.) These two causes raised the zeal of the Jews 
for their law, their temple, and their nationality to the high- 
est pitch ; and this could not fail to react upon the keen 
religious life and strained expectancy of the Christian com- 
munity at Jerusalem. 

At its head stood James the brother of Jesus, supported 
by Peter and John. As to this James, we know that his 
strict observance of the Law gained him the title of " the 
Just," and that he enjoyed the esteem of the Pharisees them- 
selves. Indeed the earliest ecclesiastical historian (170 a.d.) , 
himself a Jewish Christian, says of him that from his birth 
he had been holy, had let his hair grow, had abstained from 
wine and intoxicating drinks, from animal food, and from 
anointing and bathing himself; that he wore nothing but 
linen, and was constantly kneeling in the temple, praying for 
the people, till his knees grew as hard as a camel's. No 
doubt this description is much exaggerated ; but we have no 
reason to doubt that James observed with the utmost strict- 
ness the abstinence enjoined by the Nazarite's vow, and 
some of the customs of the Essenes also. 1 The position held 
by such a man among the followers of Jesus is highly signifi- 
cant ; and a learned ecclesiastical father, at the close of the 
second century, further informs us that the Apostle Matthew 
never ate an}^ meat, but lived on the produce of the field, — ■ 
upon fruit and vegetables. 2 The principles of the Essenes, 
which had points of unquestionable affinity with the gospel, 
had gradually forced their waj T , together with Pharisaism, 
into the bosom of the community. Thus the principles of 
Jesus himself were verj' largely superseded. 

And now we can understand the significance of the work 
of Paul, and how much we owe to him. What would have 
become, without him, of the cause of Jesus? Though the 
Twelve were the first boldly to represent and advocate this 
cause, they afterwards allowed their task, their privileges, 
and their rank to pass away from themselves to "the 
Seventy," — the messengers who bore the news to the hea- 
then. For to them alone it was due that the community did 
not sooner or later perish, like the other Jewish sects. 

We may be sure that for a long time no one at Jerusalem 

exactly knew what Paul, with Barnabas and others, was really 

doing. They only heard that the former persecutor had now 

become a preacher of the faith, and they thanked God for it. 

i See pp. G, 100, 101. 212. 2 Compare Romans xiv. 2. 



546 COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES. 

Perhaps they knew that he preached the Christ principally to 
heathen ; but in any case they had no kind of connection 
with his work. So long as they did not come into contact 
with these new converts, they might suppose, as a matter of 
course, that they had embraced Judaism and become prose- 
lytes, in order to be admitted to a share in the national ex- 
pectation of Abraham's seed in the Christ and his salvation. 
It was only while they retained some such impression that 
they could be thankful for what Paul was doing. As soon 
as they should come to hear what was really being done, or 
as soon as they should come into contact with the converts, as 
the} 7 must at last, then a violent collision would be inevitable. 
It would have been strange indeed if such a revolution, in- 
augurating a new religion of the world, had been accomplished 
without violent shocks, or without sowing dissension between 
brothers and rending them apart. 

As to the occasion, the time, the place, and the manner of 
this explosion our information is very imperfect. Paul only 
tells us that certain false brothers had crept into his com- 
munities to ensnare the liberty which he and all his converts 
enjoyed in virtue of their faith in Christ, and to bring them 
under the yoke of the Law. But this is hardly a fair way of 
stating the facts. These Jewish believers were no false broth- 
ers, but were as zealous for what the}' held to be the truth of 
God, and as firm in their own convictions, as Paul himself. 
However contracted their ideas might be, they acted to the 
best of their own knowledge. Nor can we believe that the} 7 
crept in unawares. We may be sure that they took a high 
tone from the very first, in attempting to vindicate the Law 
of the Lord where they found it had been neglected, to com- 
pel the heathen converts to become proselytes, and the believ- 
ing Jews to live in strict accordance with the Law, if they 
hoped to have a place in the kingdom of the Christ. But 
Paul did not always shine in appreciating the motives and 
convictions of those who differed from him ; and when he 
wrote his account of this affair, four years or so afterwards, 
he had seen these orthodox zealots do such incalculable harm, 
and had suffered so keenly from them himself, that we can 
perfectly understand the bitter tone he adopted towards them. 
Their very first appearance among his converts was evidently 
fraught with extremest danger, and threatened to break down 
all that he had built up, and to blight his past and future 
work with the curse of barrenness. u How is it possible?'' 



COLLISION OP THE TWO PARTIES. 547 

we ask. Well, orthodox}^ seems in every age to have a mar- 
vellous fascination for undeveloped natures ; and in this case 
its exponents could appeal to the community at Jerusalem 
and the Twelve who had been the disciples of Jesus himself, 
and who must surely know the conditions of discipleship much 
better than Paul could do. It was indeed a troubled period 
in the life of the Apostle of the gentiles ! 

In Acts we read that the dispute broke out at Antioch, — 
to which Syria and Cilicia are subsequently x added, — and 
that it was caused by the arrival of certain men from Judaea, 
who taught the heathen converts that the3 T must incorporate 
themselves with the covenanted people of the Lord by circum- 
cision and by observing the Law in all other respects. Oth- 
erwise, the}' said, their hope in the Christ would be vain ; and 
when he returned and judged the world he would not recog- 
nize them as his, but would condemn them together with all 
the uncircumcisecl. This caused extreme disma}'. Paul and 
Barnabas defended themselves with zeal and power, but with 
only partial success. Many of the Christians of Antioch 
were convinced by the new teaching, or at any rate shaken 
in their former confidence. The contest grew more violent. 
At last the community determined to send Paul and Barnabas, 
with certain others, as a deputation to Jerusalem, to ask for 
the decision of the Apostles and the elders there. All this is 
verj T credible, except the last statement, which is not correct. 
Paul was not sent to Jerusalem by any one, but went of his 
own accord, though only after long hesitation and a hard 
struggle. At first he could not bring himself to renounce 
his proud independence and go to Jerusalem to beg ap- 
proval for his gospel, as though he recognized the authority 
of man. But then there was so much at stake ! He was 
tossed to and fro in painful indecision, till at last he thought- 
he heard a voice from Gocl reassuring him and commanding 
him to go. 

Of course Barnabas went with him, and he took Titus also. 
When he reached Jerusalem he set forth to the brethren, who 
now became acquainted with him for the first time, how he 
labored among the heathen ; how he brought them to the 
knowledge of the one true God, making them utterly relin- 
quish their idolatry ; how he preached the Christ to them as 
monarch in the kingdom of God and as the future judge of 
mankind, making them believe in him and take up his princi- 
ples into their hearts and lives. Moreover, he told them hoyy 

i Acts xv. 23. 



54:8 COLLISION OF THE TWO PAHTIES. 

success had crowned his efforts, and how he had established 
churches in various parts of S}Tia and Cilicia. He spoke of 
the same things privately to the three most influential men, 
— James, Cephas (Peter), and John ; and to them he doubt- 
less explained, more particularly and fully than he had done 
before the public meeting, the veritable essence of his preach- 
ing to the heathen, — justification by faith alone, without 
circumcision or observance of the Law. 

It was hard to bring himself to it ! Years afterward there 
was something repulsive to his nature in the thought of it. 
But if the heads of the community should once join these 
Jewish fanatics against him, then he foresaw that all his 
efforts would be thwarted ; that his churches would be torn 
asunder and finally subjected to the Law, — in a word, that 
the truth of the gospel would be obscured. And inasmuch 
as Judaism, with its countless ceremonies, could never be a 
universal religion, the conversion of the heathen would itself 
be cramped and ultimately made impossible. So for all these 
reasons he consented to plead his cause at Jerusalem ; though 
he himself was far too certain in his own mind of the truth that 
he possessed to submit it for decision to any human judges, 
even the three "pillars" themselves! Neither did he yield 
or swerve a hair's breadth before the zealots, even in the 
smallest thing, here in Jerusalem any more than he had done 
when on his own ground. Here, on their own ground and in 
all their strength, the} T definitely demanded in the name of the 
Lord that Titus should be circumcised, and pressed the de- 
mand with ever-growing impetuosity. No doubt the Apostles 
themselves would have been glad if Paul and his disciple 
would have consented to this step ; for if they had not cared 
about it, then the persistency of the others would not have 
signified. But for all that they were not prepared definitely 
to insist upon it, and did not do so. So, in spite of the most 
violent scenes, Titus remained uncircumcised as a standing 
assertion that the ordinary heathen converts could still less 
be expected to conform to this Jewish practice. 

So, after various conferences, explanations, and negotia- 
tions, Paul finally gained his point. At any rate James and 
Peter and John were unable to convince him of error, or to 
show him that God had opened to them an} 7 better conception 
of the gospel than his. So they left him in perfect liberty ; 
for their position also was a ver} T difficult one. The prophets 
themselves had expected Israel to be the light of the world in 
the Golden Age, and the heathen to bow in willing subjection 



COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES. 549 

oefore the Messiah. Nor had the Twelve so completely for- 
gotten the teaching or lost the spirit of Jesus as to retain or 
encourage the spirit of national pride and exclusiveness. 
Finally, love of the Master and zeal for his cause compelled 
them to rejoice in the bold attempt of the preacher who braved 
every difficulty and danger in order to bear the message of 
salvation to far-off lands. But the conditions upon which he 
admitted heathen to the faith were open to grave suspicion. 
The fact that he enjoined no legal observances whatever, but 
allowed his converts to continue their heathen ways of life, 
seriously damped the joy with which the Apostles heard of his 
success. The Scriptural passages 1 and other arguments which 
he urged in favor of his gospel did not convince them. But 
there was one conclusive proof to which Paul constantly re- 
curred, and against which they had nothing to urge. It was 
the divine blessing which had rested on his work. If it had not 
been acceptable to the Lord, He would not have allowed him 
so rich a harvest. That was certain. The success of his work 
was the seal of divine approbation. Paul had been called to 
the task of advancing into the heathen world as the herald of 
the Son of God, — had been endowed with the rare and special 
gifts and powers needed for the task as indisputably as Peter 
had been called to preach the Messiah to the Jews. Not to 
recognize him would be to resist God. So James and Peter 
and John grasped the hand of fellowship held out to them, 
and recognized Paul and Barnabas as fellow-laborers in the 
great task and speciflcalfy as preachers of the gospel to the 
heathen, while the} T themselves continued to devote their time 
and strength to the people of the covenant. Ere long the 
Master himself would return from heaven and decide the 
question in their favor. 

Did this mean a tacit understanding that each would go 
out of the other's wa} T and take care to keep out of it? At 
any rate the Twelve implied that they would not harass Paul 
because his gospel differed from theirs, but would leave the 
ultimate decision to the Christ. For it is evident that they 
never came to any real agreement on the points of difference 
between them, or wiry should they have marked off their sepa- 
rate fields of labor so distinctly ? Had the others accepted 
Pauline views as to the annulling of the Law and the equality 
of all mankind, wiry should not Peter and the rest have 
preached to heathen, or Paul to Jews, just as it happened? 
But the fact was that these men of Jerusalem were profoundly 
1 Compare Roman? x. 11 ff.. xv. 8 if. 



550 COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES. 

convinced, that, as far as Jews were concerned, Paul's doctrine 
of justification bj faith alone was inapplicable, or rather 
distinctly untrue ; and the} r determined therefore to go on 
preaching the glad tidings to the Jews, without loosening the 
connection of the gospel with the piety and the privileges of 
their nation. And as for these Greeks, since they were not 
incorporated into Israel, they could hardly claim equality of 
rank in the kingdom of God ; but their faith would perhaps 
secure their admission. 

So Paul and Barnabas might go their wa}\ One only con- 
dition was made, and to that the messengers to the heathen 
cheerfully acceded. They were to collect money among their 
converts for the needy brethren at Jerusalem, whom famine 
and other disasters had brought into great distress. These 
contributions would bear a certain analogy to those made b} T 
the foreign Jews towards the expenses of the temple, which 
the}' paid with great regularity ; and though the claim seemed 
to imply a certain sense of superiority on the part of the 
primitive community, it did not involve the smallest sacrifice 
of principle upon the other side, and accordingly Paul was by 
no means slack in his compliance with it. 

It was not without satisfaction that Paul returned with his 
two companions to Antioch. He could now assure all those 
who felt uneas}', either there or elsewhere, that the heads of 
the community had no desire to force circumcision and the 
observance of the Law upon the heathen converts as indis- 
pensable conditions of salvation, but had given him and 
Barnabas the hand of fellowship. Of course there would be 
some who had already been persuaded, and who now perse- 
vered in their new course for safety's sake. The Apostles 
had never said it was superfluous, they felt sure. And, in- 
deed, it appeared only too soon that the gulf, though covered 
over, was not closed. 

After a time Peter came to Antioch. The cause of his 
visit is not known. Did Paul invite him? Did he intend to 
preach Jesus as the Messiah among the numerous Jewish 
residents ? This would be no violation of the understanding 
with Paul ; and a mere complimentary visit seems improbable, 
a journey for relaxation more improbable jet. Besides, his 
visit does not seem to have been a short one. Be this as it 
ma} T , all went smoothly enough at first, and Paul gained a 
veritable triumph. Not only did Peter indulge in friendly 
intercourse with him and Barnabas, but he even associated 



COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES. 551 

with the heathen converts, and went so far as to eat with them. 
That was an important step. To enter into such brotherly 
relations with the uncircumcised and therefore the unclean, as 
to sit at the same table with them and accept them as fellow 
believers, was tantamount to recognizing them openly as the 
equals of the Jewish converts in spite of their continuing to 
live without the Law. Moreover, Peter himself must on these 
occasions have transgressed the dietaiy laws. We ma} T take 
for granted that the Christians of Antioch had tact enough to 
respect the ingrained aversion of every Jew — of Paul no less 
than Peter — to the flesh of swine, and would set no pork 
upon the board ; but they were entirely ignorant of all the 
Jewish restrictions as to the kinds of food allowed and the 
proper methods of preparing them. It is quite possible that 
beef might be served cut from a beast that had been sacri- 
ficed to a heathen deity, and it is certain that tithes would not 
have been paid out of all the victuals. So Peter practically 
dispensed with the observance of the Law, and lived in gen- 
tile fashion. 

This is far from inexplicable. Peter was naturally of a 
liberal disposition, and his short intercourse with Jesus had 
made him more so. Here at Antioch, on gentile-Christian 
ground, where Jews and gentiles had been on terms of friendly 
intercourse before he came, he had hardly any choice ; and, 
finally, the influence of so powerful a personality as Paul's 
could not fail to have great weight with him. 

But, for all this, Peter's conduct was dictated by no prin- 
ciple and rested on no settled conviction. He was not realty 
himself, and this style of life did not sit easily on him. He 
was accustomed to very different things at Jerusalem, in the 
midst of his formal surroundings and in the company of the 
punctilious James. Hence the possibility of his veering com- 
pletely round. 

Perhaps he had been in the Syrian capital for some few 
weeks when certain Nazarenes from Jerusalem came there 
also. The} T had been sent b} T James, but with what purpose 
we do not know. It can hardly have been that James had 
heard of Peter's conduct, and desired to bring him back to 
the right track. It is more likely that he sent these men to 
help Peter in his preaching to the Jews. At any rate, on this 
latter supposition it would still be quite natural that they 
should not only express themselves to Peter as personally 
surprised and shocked at his mode of life, so different from 
that he was accustomed to in Jerusalem, but should also point 



552 COLLISION OF THE TWO PAETIES. 

out that their chances of converting the Jews of Antioch to 
faith in the Messiah would be greatly increased if both they 
themselves and all the Jewish believers in the place strictly 
conformed to the Law. All this, however, is purely conjec- 
tural. We only know that these emissaries of James's had 
hardly come to Antioch before Peter repented of the line he 
had taken, shrank from following it out any further, and pre- 
cipitately withdrew. No one could help observing that he had 
suddenly begun to avoid with scrupulous care all familiar in- 
tercourse with the uncircumcised, and also that fear of these 
brothers from Jerusalem had dictated the change. But the 
worst of it was that the other Jewish converts soon began to 
follow his disastrous example ; and even Barnabas, the bold 
ally who had hitherto sympathized so thoroughly with Paul, 
was swept along by the stream ! 

The confusion and disma}^ among the gentile-Christians 
were past description. None of the circumcised believers 
would sit at one table with them as brothers in the Lord any 
more. A great proportion of the brethren condemned the 
conduct of Peter, and with good reason, but dare not sa} T 
what the} r thought. Meanwhile it became more and more 
difficult for the heathen converts to maintain their independ- 
ence of the Law. The men who had just come from Jerusa- 
lem insisted with all their might upon observance of the Law 
as indispensable to a full participation in the joys of salva- 
tion. Peter, the chief of the Apostles, urged them in the 
same direction, indirectly by his conduct if not directly by 
his words. If they asserted their freedom, they would not 
only be cut off from intercourse with their brothers of Israel, 
including Barnabas, but would be risking more or less com- 
pletely their own future and their foothold in the kingdom of 
God. 

It was a critical and perilous moment ! Now for the first 
time the great difference of principle came sharply and clearly 
into the light. Was it to be the old or the new, Law or Gos- 
pel, forms or faith, authority or freedom, James or Paul? 
James had almost all the advantages ; for custom and preju- 
dice, in a word the almost irresistible weight of tradition, the 
so-called divine authority, were upon his side. Paul had 
nothing to oppose to it except the new-born Christian con- 
sciousness. No wonder then that Peter, and all the rest 
who had hitherto displayed so much liberality without exactly 
seeing what it meant, or in obedience to mere personal pre- 
ferences, drew back as soon as they were called on to make 



COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES. 553 

a definite choice. It was no longer a case of making con 
cessions and giving way to brothers in the faith who were 
imperfectly acquainted or wholly unacquainted with the Law. 
It had become a matter of principle, and they must embrace 
or reject that principle with all that it involved. Was the 
Law necessaiy to salvation or not? If superfluous for the 
heathen, was it not at an} 7 rate binding on the Jews ? And 
if binding on the Jews, must it not after all be binding upon 
the heathen also? A definite decision must at last be made. 
Once more, we can well understand that Peter shrank from 
carrying out his liberal impulses ; but we can also understand 
wlvv Paul, who could not comprehend and could not endure 
half-heartedness, who regarded this vacillation as conscious 
unfaithfulness to the principle of the gospel, did not shrink 
from using the hard word Wl hypocrisy ! " 

It was well that Paul was there and did not shrink from 
carrying his principles through ! Seeing what was at stake 
and knowing how severely Peter's altered conduct was con 
demned, he roundly told him the truth to his face, and in the 
presence of all the congregation. "You, a born Jew," he 
cried in substance, " but yesterda} 7 felt no difficulty in living 
as a gentile ; and to-day you would compel all the gentiles to 
live as Jews ! Why did we, who are Jews, believe in the 
Christ, if not because we knew that observance of the Law 
could not justify us before God? And if after that we turn 
round and declare it essential to live after the Law, we make 
the position of the Christ himself equivocal, bring ourselves 
under the judgment, empt3 T of its meaning the Christian life 
of faith, and make out that the Son of God died for nothing ! " 

What was the end of this controvers} 7 we do not know. 
Paul never hints that Peter confessed his weakness and em- 
braced the cause of freedom ; and it is more than improbable 
that he did so. So far as we can make out, the Apostle ol 
the Jews took good care henceforth never to quit the path of 
the Law ; but on this occasion his own inconsistency must 
have made it hard for him to put forward any defence, and 
Paul, as the man of principle, held the field. 

But the conflict had resulted in a definite breach. 

Such is the conception of these events which we gather from 
Paul's own words. In the book of Acts, on the contrary, we 
find the following picture : — 

The congregation of Antioch had escorted their deputies, 
Paul and Barnabas, through the first stages of their journey ; 
vol. in. 24 



t 

554 COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES. 

and as the latter passed through Phoenicia and Samaria they 
rejoiced the hearts of the brethren everywhere by recording 
the conversion of the heathen. At Jerusalem they were well 
received by the brethren, wi.ri their elders and the Apostles ; 
and to them also they related all that God had accomplished 
by their means. But certain Pharisees who had joined the 
brethren said that the heathen converts ought to submit to 
circumcision and the Law. 

To consider this question, a meeting of the Apostles ai .1 
elders was held. Great diversity of opinion was manifested 
among them, until Peter stood up and reminded them how 
God had long ago specialty selected him to preach the gospel 
to the uncircumcised, and had set the heathen believers on a 
full equalit}^ with the converted Jews. It was therefore a 
defiance of God to insist upon imposing the yoke of the Law, 
which the Jews themselves had found unbearable, upon the 
necks of the gentiles. Surely there was no salvation for 
either Jew or gentile but by the grace of the Lord Jesus ! 
Paul and Barnabas took advantage of the silence that followed 
this address to relate to the whole assembled multitude what 
wonders God had done hy them among the heathen. Then 
James began. He referred to the ancient oracle about the 
conversion of the heathen, and expressed his opinion that 
the}' ought not to throw any obstacles in the w r ay of that con- 
version. It would be enough to require the converts to ab- 
stain from the meat of beasts that had been sacrificed to idols, 
from all that the Jews regarded as inchastity, including mar- 
riage within certain degrees of relationship, and from all 
animals that had been caught and strangled in snares, or for 
any other cause had not bled properly when killed. So much 
might reasonably be required, for the law of Moses had long 
been preached in the heathen world as well as in Jewr}~, week 
by week, and might therefore fairly claim a certain degree of 
lespect even from the heathen. 

This proposal was approved by the Apostles, the elders, 
and the whole community ; and thej^ determined to send two 
representatives, Judas, the son of Sabbas, and Silas, to ac- 
compairv Paul and Barnabas to Antioch with an official address 
to the gentile converts there and in Syria and Cilicia generally, 
in which the fanatics who wished to make circumcision and 
the observance of the Law compulsory were repudiated as 
mischief-makers, Barnabas and Paul commended as zealous 
servants of the Christ, and abstinence from the four specified 
abominations only enjoined in the name of the Holy Spirit as 



COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES. 555 

absolutely necessary. Accordingly the four set out, and 
when the}' reached Antioch they summoned the brethren and 
gave them the letter, the contents of which the}' received 
with joy. 

Judas and Silas, who were both of them prophets, labored 
for a time at Antioch and then returned to those who had sent 
them. Paul and Barnabas stayed at Antioch, teaching and 
preacliing there with many others, till Paul proposed that 
they should go and visit the churches they had founded on 
their first missionary journey. Barnabas agreed, and sug- 
gested that they should take John Mark with them, to which 
Paul objected on t£<> ground that he had deserted them before. 
They grew warm on the subject and finally separated, Barna- 
bas going with Mark to Cyprus, and Paul with Silas to the 
churches of Syria and Cilicia, everywhere enforcing the regu- 
lations laid down by the council of Jerusalem. 

We perceive at once that this narrative differs totally from 
that of Paul, and that in many points it flatly contradicts it, 
and is therefore quite untrustworthy. Here the question is 
decided in a formal assembly, while Paul says that it was set- 
tled in private conference with the three " pillars." Here Paul 
drops quite into the background, whereas he was really the 
principal speaker or pleader. Here there is no difference of 
opinion between him and the Apostles ; he has no cause 
for anxiety in going to Jerusalem, and not a word is said of 
dividing the field of labor. The one stipulation really made, 
— namely, that the G-entile believers should contribute to the 
support of their Jewish brothers, — is passed over without a 
syllable. This is intentional, for advantage was subsequently 
taken of this money question to represent Paul in a most 
odious light ; and this is why our author spoke of his collec- 
tion of relief funds at an earlier period, when no difficulties 
whatever had arisen. 1 Nothing is said of Titus, for fear of 
recalling the violent dispute of which he was the centre, and 
the steadfast refusal of Paul to circumcise him ; and our au- 
thor, who shrinks from nothing that looks conciliatory, after- 
wards pretends 2 that Paul, when taking Timothy upon a jour- 
ney with him, circumcised him to please the Jews of Asia 
Minor, who were all aware that his father was a heathen. 
We may rest assured, however, that Paul would never be 
guilty of such a sacrifice of principle, especially after all that 
had occurred. 

The discourses put into the mouths *vf James and Peter are 

i See p. 535 and chap. x. p. 611. 2 Acts xvi. 3. 



556 COLLISION OF THE TWO PAETIES. 

especially remarkable. Even James is for toleration and con- 
cession ; but Peter — so completely is every thing reversed — - 
speaks like a genuine follower of Paul. ' ' There is no distinction 
now," l.o sa}'s, "between Jew and gentile. God has given 
the Holy Spirit to the latter as well as the former ; to subject 
the heathen to the Law is defiance of God ; all alike must be 
purified by faith alone ; not even the Jewish believers can 
find salvation in the Law ! " Our author never ventures to 
let Paul himself come out so boldly with his own principles ! 1 
If Peter had ever really used such words, how easily Paul 
might have brought him to task at Antioch ! James leaves 
this portion of his colleague's speech untouched, and goes on 
the assumption that the Law remains in force for the Jews, 
but that the number of commandments enforced among the 
gentiles should be as small as possible. 

As regards the four commandments themselves, or rather 
the resolution of the council at Jerusalem to enforce them, 
Paul's solemn statement that he was left at perfect liberty is 
conclusive. Had the resolution really been made and ac- 
cepted, the scene at Antioch could never have been enacted ; 
the heathen converts would have complied with the regula- 
tions ; 2 Peter could have had no difficulty in eating with them ; 
the emissaries of James could not have demanded their ex- 
clusion ; Barnabas and the other Jewish members would never 
have separated themselves from them. Finally we observe 
that afterwards, when the question of the use of heathen viands, 
especially meat that had been sacrificed to idols, arose in the 
Pauline communities, no one, whether Jew or heathen, knew 
any thing of a resolution on the subject passed by the parent 
church. The prohibitions themselves are what the Jewish- 
Christians afterwards came to regard as the minimum of legal 
observance upon which the} T must insist from the Gentile- 
Christians. But this minimum was never officially defined. 
It merely grew up in practice, and was suggested by the 
Noachic commandments, 3 which the Jews required the prose- 
lytes of the gate to observe ; or rather 03- the precepts of the 
Law to the strangers who dwelt in Israel. 4 In post-apostolic 
times we really find these observances recognized as the test 
of the renunciation of heathenism. 

Again, Peter's visit to Antioch, with all that took place on 
that occasion, is consigned to oblivion by the book of Acts, 
for obvious reasons. The estrangement between Paul and 

1 Compare Acts xxi. 21, 24. 2 Acts xv. 30,31, xvi. 4, xxi. 25. 

» See vol. i. p. 83. 4 Leviticus xvii. 8 ff. 



COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES. 557 

Barnabas,, which was really caused by the equivocal and 
vacillating conduct o r the latter, is accounted for in Acts by 
a totally different cause, that has no connection with the 
question of faith ; but we may remark that, since Paul still 
writes of Barnabas some }^ears afterwards as though he were 
a preacher to the heathen and a fellow-laborer of his own in 
full sympathy with him, 1 we are justified in doubting whether 
it is true that the two men separated for good, as the book of 
Acts declares. 

But perhaps the most important of all the divergences 
between the historical account of Paul and the harmonizing 
efforts of the author of Acts has still to be mentioned. Paul 
tells us not only that God had unmistakably appointed Peter 
the Apostle of the Jews, as He had appointed him the preacher 
to the heathen, but also that the fact was recognized and de- 
clared at Jerusalem ; but in Acts we find Peter, in a passage 
of his speech to which James subsequently refers, speaking 
of it as a matter of general knowledge that God had long ago 
chosen him (Peter) , out of all the rest, as the one from whose 
mouth the heathen should hear the gospel and believe ! It 
is easj T to see that this ascription of the original apostolate 
of the heathen to Peter, this tearing of his laurels from Paul, 
is simply intended to fill up the gulf between the two hostile 
parties of the post- apostolic age. The story, composed with 
this object and referred to in the discourses we have been 
considering, runs as follows : 2 — 

Peter was making a tour of all the churches in Palestine, 
which had entered upon a period of great prosperity since 
the conversion of then- most violent persecutor, Saul. In the 
course of this journe}' he came to Lydda, and there, in the 
name of Jesus the Messiah, he cured a certain iEneas, who 
had been lame and confined to his bed for eight years. An 
urgent invitation from the brethren at Joppa, which was situ- 
ated on the sea-shore about four leagues fromLydcla, hastened 
his departure; for there at Joppa one of the believers, — an 
unwearied benefactress of the poor, named Tabitha, in Greek 
Dorcas (that is "gazelle"), — had just died, and they were 
keeping her unburied in expectation of Peter's arrival. When 
he came ne restored her to life, to the great jo} r of the com- 
munit}*, and especially of the poor widows whom she had 
provided with clothing. By these two miracles he won many 
souls for the good cause in both the cities and the districts 

1 Galatians ii. 1, 9 ; 1 Corinthians ix. 6. 2 Acts ix. 31-xi. 1& 



553 COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES. 

round. He remained at Joppa some time, in the house of a 
tanner, — which was a proof of his liberality, since the tanner's 
trade was considered half unclean, and those who practised it 
usually had to live apart. It was here that he received his 
call as Apostle of the Gentiles. 

There dwelt at Caesarea, a da}^ and a half's journey north 
of Joppa, a certain Cornelius, an officer of the Italian cohort ; 
and he and all his household were devout worshippers of the 
god of Israel, though not proselytes. One afternoon, at the 
third hour of prayer, his enlightened eyes beheld an angel 
enter the apartment ; and the angel said that, as a reward for 
his perseverance in prayer and his frequent alms to the Jews, 
God commanded him to send to Joppa for a man called Simon 
Peter, who was lodging in such and such a house. Cornelius 
instantly obeyed, and sent three trust}' messengers to find 
Peter. 

But would Peter consent to visit a gentile ? That was the 
Lord's care. The following day at twelve o'clock the Apostle 
had gone out on the roof of the house for the second prayer. 
He was hungry, but the meal was not yet ready. Then he 
fell into a trance and saw the heaven open, while something 
like a great sheet suspended by the four corners was let down 
to earth. It contained all manner of four-footed and creeping 
things and all manner of birds, clean and unclean alike. A 
voice from heaven cried, " Rise, Peter ! kill and eat ! " But he 
urged that he had never eaten unclean food in his life ; upon 
which the voice replied, "What God has cleansed call not 
thou unclean." This was repeated three times, after which 
the sheet was drawn up again into heaven. Now while Peter 
was pondering upon the meaning of this vision, the messen- 
gers came from Cornelius. They had found the house, and 
were at that very moment inquiring for Peter. Then the 
Holy Spirit commanded the Apostle to go with them unhesi- 
tatingly, as sent by the Spirit. So he came clown, made 
himself known, inquired what had brought them to him, 
heard of the message Cornelius had received from God, offered 
them hospitality for that night, and the next morning started 
with them for Caesarea, accompanied b}' six of the brethren 
from Joppa, on account of the great importance of the occa- 
sion. 

Cornelius was awaiting him, together with his relatives and 
his closest friends ; and no sooner had the Apostle entered 
than he fell down before him in superstitious reverence. But 
the other repudiated his homage, said that he too was a man 



COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES. 559 

and nothing more, and entered the room, which was full of 
people in familiar conversation. His first care was to explain 
how it was that he, a Jew, had not refused to enter into these 
relations with a gentile. God had taught him to consider no 
man unclean or an outcast. But now he wished to know wiry 
he had been sent for. Then the officer told him of the vision 
he had had as he was fasting three days before, and concluded : 
" So now we are all here, as in the presence of God, to know 
what it is that the Lord has commanded you." 

Then Peter began. Now he knew for certain that God 
paid no heed to birth or to descent, but would extend his 
grace to an} r God-fearing and virtuous man, whether he were 
Jew or gentile, and would admit him into His kingdom. 
They must all have heard of the glad tidings sent to Israel, 
— the glad tidings of salvation through Jesus Christ, the 
Lord of all both Jew and gentile. After the preaching of 
John, the whole of Judaea, beginning with Galilee, had been 
filled with the name of Jesus of Nazareth, — a man entrusted 
b} T God with the Holy Spirit and with power to work miracles, 
who had gone through the land doing good and healing all 
the victims of the devil by the power of God. Now when 
they had murdered this man, God raised him again and 
showed him, not to the whole of Israel, but to his chosen 
witnesses. He had commissioned the Apostles to preach 
him to Israel as the future judge of the living and the dead ; 
and the prophets long ago had spoken of his salvation. 

When Peter had reached this point, all his hearers were 
suddenly filled with the Holy Spirit, and " spoke with tongues," 
or burst into rapturous praises of God. The Jewish believers 
from Joppa were filled with amazement when they saw this 
gift of the Spirit, first poured out on the day of Pentecost, 
communicated to heathen likewise. Peter felt that, when the 
Spirit had been thus poured out upon them, there could not 
possibly be an} T difficulty in formally admitting them into the 
Messiah's community ; and accordingly they were baptized as 
believers in the Lord, after which Peter yielded to their desire 
that he would sta} T with them a little time. 

It was not long before the other Apostles and the Jewish 
believers generally came to hear that the heathen had accepted 
the preaching of the Christ ; and when Peter returned to 
Jerusalem the members of the community severely blamed 
him for having sat at table with the uncircumcised. But when 
Peter gave them a detailed account of his vision of the clean 
and unclean beasts and all that had followed it, and told 



560 COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES, 

theni how the Spirit had been poured upon Cornelius and his 
friends (to which the six brethren from Joppa could testify) , 
then all agreed with him that it was impossible to mistake the 
hand of God in this, and that it would be impious to resist it. 
So they made no further difficulties, but praised God for hav- 
ing called the heathen also to repent and attain to the su- 
preme blessedness. 

This story, which is given with extreme detail because of 
its great importance, is meant to show that God himself had 
unconditionally sanctioned the conversion of the heathen. 
And therefore our author places it before the beginning of 
Paul's work among the gentiles, and even before the preach- 
ing of the Grecian Jews at Antioch. Ever3 r thing is dictated 
from above, and nothing is the result of any human impulse. 
Nay, Peter is expressly represented as entertaining a very 
exaggerated horror of the gentiles, which he overcomes with 
difficulty ; while the indignation of the men of Jerusalem 
shows that nothing short of an unmistakable divine revelation 
would have reconciled them to the measure. It is the angel's 
visit, the voice from heaven, and the pouring out of the Spirit 
that decide the whole matter. Thus it appears that Jew and 
gentile are alike in the sight of God ; that the latter has the 
same claims to the gospel as the former ; that circumcision 
and observance of the Law are no conditions of salvation. 
The repeated use of the expression " the heathen " 1 shows that 
there is no intention of treating this as an isolated case, and 
that it is regarded as involving the whole principle of the 
conversion of the heathen. In the end the primitive com- 
munity not only acquiesces in the accession of the uncircum- 
cised, but glorifies God for it. 

Whether there are any facts at all at the bottom of this 
story it is difficult to say. In any case its enumeration of the 
cities Ly T dda, Joppa, and Csesarea constitutes our sole re- 
maining account of Peter's wide-spread and successful labors 
as the missionary Apostle of the Jews. As it now stands, it 
need hardly be said that the narrative is in direct contradic- 
tion with histon^. To convince ourselves of this we have 
only to think of the orthodox believers who forced themselves 
into Paul's communities, of the danger which consequently 
threatened his work among the heathen, of his painful jour- 
ney to Jerusalem, of the emphatic indication of Peter as the 
Apostle of the Jews in contradistinction to the two messengers 
to the heathen, of Peter's conduct at Antioch, of the attitude 

1 Acts x. 45, xi. 1, 18; compare x. 28, 35, xi. 3, 17, 



COLLISION OF THE TWO PARTIES. 561 

adopted by James, and of all that }-et remains to be told of 
the community at Jerusalem. In a word, this story makes 
out that the question of the conversion of the heathen was 
supernaturally settled, once for all, to everybody's satisfac- 
tion ; whereas we know from Paul what bitter proof of the 
contraiy he had, and in the book of Acts itself, a few chap- 
ters further on, we find the question still regarded as unset- 
tled- 1 Quite apart from the miracles and visions, then, the 
story is a palpable fiction. As to the miraculous machinery, 
we may note the analogies between the restoration of Dorcas 
to life and that of Jairus's daughter, between the person of 
the Csesarean officer and that of his brother in arms at Caper- 
naum, and above all between the experiences of Peter and 
the honor which he gains and all that we are elsewhere told 
of Paul. 2 And again the visions of Peter and Cornelius re- 
mind us of those of Ananias and Saul. Finally, it was no 
accident, but a definite attempt to obscure the events at Anti- 
och, which dictated the emphatic assertion that Peter had 
eaten with the uncircumcised, had been reproached for doing 
so b}* the orthodox believers, had defended himself manfully, 
and had freed himself from all blame even in their eyes. 

The whole story is a pure invention, and any thing but a 
purposeless one. Long after the breach had been made in the 
old communit}-, our author, or his authority, attempted to 
heal it for ever by throwing a veil over the events that had 
given rise to it, or rather b} r disguising them past the possi- 
bility of recognition. He would have accomplished his 
purpose to perfection, had not a few of Paul's letters been 
preserved ! After the short-lived peace of Jerusalem the 
decisive outbreak at Antioch established the breach between 
the two parties. The difference of principle between them 
must end in open warfare. Personal jealousies embittered 
the contest. Paul's public rebuke of Peter could never be 
forgiven. A century afterwards the extreme orthodox sec- 
tion reproached him with having told their Apostle that he 
was condemned for his equivocal dealings. 

This conflict was to follow Paul, like a curse, wherever he 
went, and fall like a blight upon all his work. He seems to 
have thought it best to leave Antioch at once. In spite of 
his uncompromising attitude, or perhaps in consequence of it, 
he was deserted, or at least suspected, by mairy of the breth- 

1 Acts xv. 1, 5, 6, et seq. 

2 Compare Mark v. 23, 35, 40-42 with Acts ix. 37-41 ; Luke vii. 2-5 with 
Acts x. 1, 2, 4 22; and see p. 539 and chap. x. p 000. 

24* 



562 GOSPEL IN EUROPE. 

ren. He permanently removed to other regions the scene of 
his labors as a preacher. Let us follow him upon these mis- 
sionary journeys and stay with him, as he takes up his abode 
for longer or shorter periods in various centres of the ancient 
civilization ! 



Chapter VII. 

THE GOSPEL IN EUROPE. 

Acts XVI.-XVIII. 18; Mark V. l-20> 

IN the book of Acts Paul's missionary labors are artificially 
divided into three periods. Each journey is begun from 
Antioch and concluded or followed b}~ a visit to Jerusalem ; 
and in each case that portion of the narrative on which the 
chief stress falls is illustrated by a discourse. At the begin- 
ning of the first journey there is an address to the Jews, in 
the middle of the second a discourse to the heathen, and at 
the end of the third a farewell speech to the Christians. But 
we cannot preserve this division, for the visit to the primitive 
communit3 r in the City of the Temple which divides the so- 
called second and third missionaiy journeys was never made 
at all, and the two therefore fall into one. 2 After the events 
at Antioch (51 or 52 a.d.) begins a period of not less than 
six and not more than eight years, during which we find Paul 
working in a fresh field in the central and western portions 
of Asia Minor, in Macedonia, and in Greece, travelling about 
from place to place but settling for some time, first at Corinth 
and afterwards at Ephesus, where he found convenient centres 
from which to start and to which to return. 

Among the written sources of information used b}' the au- 
thor of Acts was a record made b}' an unknown friend of the 
Apostle, who accompanied him upon some at least of his 
journeys. It has been conjectured that this friend was Titus, 
whose name is never mentioned in the book of Acts ; and, 
though we cannot be certain in the matter, there seem to be 
no valid objections to this idea. A more common opinion is 
that it was a certain Greek physician of the name of Luke, 3 
and that the tradition which ascribes the whole book to him 

l Matthew viii. 28-31; Luke viii. 26-39. 2 Acts xviii. 21, 22. 

3 Colossians iv. 14. 



GOSPEL IN EUROPE. 563 

rests upon the fact that it contains these fragments from his 
hand. 1 But whoever he was we only possess a lew fragments 
of hi? itinerary, 2 embracing the passage to Philippi and the 
opening of the Apostle's labors at that place, the last journey 
from Europe to Asia Minor, the journey to Jerusalem, and 
finally that to Rome. We recognize these fragments at once 
from the author's use of the first person plural, which the writer 
of Acts preserved, perhaps with a feeling that this u we" would 
give a greater air of fidelity to the whole book. In other re- 
spects he probably was not equally scrupulous in giving the 
fragments just as he found them. 

It : s not an accident that we first meet with this eye-witness 
on occasion of the introduction and initial establishment of 
the gospel in Europe ; for the preaching of the gospel in our 
own quarter of the globe has almost as special an interest for 
our author as it has for ourselves. In fact he lays down his 
pen as soon as he has recorded the establishment of Chris- 
tianit}' in Rome, — the heart of the Grseco-Roman world, the 
great capital of the West. And so too here he passes with 
extreme rapidity over all that precedes the passage to Europe ; 
namely, the journey through Syria and Cilicia, b} r Derbe and 
Lystra (where Paul found Timothy and took him with him), 
and through Phiygia and Galatia. 3 He further informs us 
that the Apostle was prevented by divine interposition from 
preaching in the northwest of Asia Minor, and that at Troas 
God summoned him to preach the gospel in Europe by send- 
ing him a vision of a Macedonian who implored him to come 
over to his land with the message of salvation. 

There is only one portion of this very meagre account 
which we are in a position to amplify. It is the journey 
through Galatia. In a letter that he afterwards wrote to the 
congregations scattered through this district, Paul reminds 
them that an illness had compelled him to remain some time 
among them, 4 — probabfy not in any of the great cities, such 
as Pessinus, Tavium, or AncjTa, but in the country. This 
was the beginning of his labors in this district, which were 
crowned with remarkable success. Here he met with men of 
a very different character from any he had } T et known. The} 7 
were not Asiatics, but were Gallic or Celtic colonists who had 
been settled in the district for three hundred } T ears. Although 
he was ill, and his sickness seems to have had an offensive 

1 Compare p. 29. 

- Acts xvi. 10-17, xx. 5-15, xxi. 1-18, xxvii. 1-xxviii. 16. 

3 See pp. 555, 556. * Galatians iv. 13. 



564 GOSPEL IN EUROPE. 

character, perhaps consisting in whole or in part in an erup- 
tion or inflammation of the eyes, yet he met with an eminently 
favorable reception. Had he been an angel from heaven, or 
the Christ in person, he could hardly have been welcomed 
more. The Galatians would have torn out their very eyes to 
give him. 1 These were fair days in the stormy life of Paul. 
There were no Jews to listen with amazement and suspicion 
to his words, or to offer direct resistance. He had only to do 
with heathen, whom he found as simple and open-minded as 
they were earnest for salvation. So he preached the death 
of Jesus on the cross to them as the only means of salvation, 
and preached so clearly and powerfully that he seemed to set 
it before their a ery eyes ; and they joyfully accepted the faith 
that was to justify them in the sight of God. Signs that 
their spiritual nature was thoroughly roused soon followed. 
Spiritual blessings were multiplied upon them ; they glowed 
with zeal for the truth, and strove to live pure lives in order 
that when the Christ returned he might receive them into the 
kingdom of God. 2 Before Paul left Galatia he had founded 
a number of communities of heathen converts, small but rich 
in promise, won heart and soul for his gospel, and deeply 
attached to him personally. 

The journey from the heart of Asia Minor to the northwest 
coast appears to have furnished little or nothing notewortlry. 
At Troas Paul took ship, accompanied by Timothy, Silas, and 
the unknown companion who wrote the diary. Passing the 
island of Samothrace, they came in two days to Neapolis, on 
the coast of Thrace, whence they proceeded to Philippi in 
Macedonia. This city, which Augustus had made a Roman 
colony, was the scene of the first preaching of the gospel in 
Europe. On the Sabbath da}- after their arrival the mission- 
aries went through the city gate to the Jewish house of prayer, 
which was situated as usual near the river, for the convenience 
of the worshippers, who were thus enabled to perform the 
prescribed ablutions before offering their prayers. Here they 
found certain women to whom the} T spoke about the object of 
their visit, and among them was a proselyte known as L} T dia, 
or " the Lydian woman," because she came from Thyatira, in 
Lydia. She was a seller of purple dye. Now this woman 
listened to Paul's preaching with extreme interest, and before 
long she was converted and baptized, with all her household, 
and begged the missionaries to take up their abode with her, 

1 Galatians iv. 14, 15. 2 Galatians iii. 1 ff., iv. 18, v. 7, vi. 9. 10. 



GOSPEL IN EUROPE. 565 

But few particulars are known of their stay at Philippi, 
which certainly lasted a good many weeks. Their work 
prospered, and a community was founded to which Paul was 
always deeply attached to the da} T of his death ; and it re- 
turned his affection, became his pride and jo} T , and, while so 
many others fell away from him, alwa}'S remained faithful and 
obedient. More than once in the period we are now consid- 
ering, and afterwards when he was a prisoner at Rome, Paul 
consented to receive pecuniary assistance from his friends at 
Philippi, though he had made it a general rule to provide for 
his own support. 1 Among the Apostle's fellow-laborers at 
Philippi, two women (Euodia and Syntyche) and two men 
(Clement and Epaphroditus) are mentioned by name. 2 All 
this deserves our confidence ; but the following account of the 
way in which the sta}^ at Philippi was brought to a close 
certainly cannot be accepted as it stands : — 

As the missionaries were going to the place of prayer, they 
were met by a certain slave-girl who was possessed of a spirit 
of divination which brought her owners great profit. Per- 
haps she was a ventriloquist. Now she followed the preach- 
ers day after day, and pointed them out to every one as 
servants of the Most High who preached the wa} T of salvation. 
At last Paul was grieved by what she did, and commanded 
the spirit, in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her, 
which it immediately did. But by this action he drew down 
upon himself the enmity of the girls proprietors, for he had 
deprived them of a considerable source of profit. Accord- 
ingly they seized the first opportunity of laying hold of Paul 
and Silas and dragging them before the chief magistrates, 
the Duumvirs, in the market-place. They denounced them 
as Jews, who had thrown the city into commotion, and who 
taught a foreign religion which it was illegal for them, as 
Roman citizens, to adopt. 8 The people vociferously demanded 
that the two strangers should be punished, and the magis- 
trates, tearing then- clothes from their backs, ordered a severe 
scourging to be administered to them ; after which the} T were 
thrown into prison, with special orders to the jailer to keep 
them securely. Accordingly the^y were locked in the inmost 
dungeon, with their feet in the stocks. So far from being 
terrified, Paul and Silas only rejoiced that they were thought 
worthy to suffer in the good cause ; and they offered up their 
prayers and made the prison ring with their songs of praise, 

1 Philippians i. 5, ii. 12, iv. 14-16. 2 Philippians iv. 2, 3, ii. 25. 

8 Compare p 3. 



566 



GOSPEL IN EUROPE. 



so that all the other prisoners listened. And thus the hour of 
midnight came. Then suddenly the foundations of the prison 
shook with a might}- earthquake, while all the doors flew open 
of themselves and all the fetters dropped from the prisoners' 
limbs. The jailer waked ; and when he saw the doors wide 
open, thinking that the prisoners had escaped, and knowing 
that he was responsible for their safe custody, he drew his 
sword in despair and was going to kill himself. But Paul 
cried out, "Do yourself no violence, for we are all here!" 
Then the jailer called for a light, rushed in and fell down 
trembling before Paul and Silas, whom he now recognized as 
messengers of God. He brought them out of the prison and 
said, "Masters! what must I do to be saved?" They told 
him he must believe in the Christ, preached the gospel to him 
and his household, and baptized them that same night. He 
on his side washed and mollified the wounds they had received 
from the scourges, took them with him to his own house, and 
set food before them, rejoicing greatly that he and all his 
household had learned to believe in God. In the morning 
the magistrates sent the lictors to dismiss the two preachers ; 
and the jailer told them that the}* could go in peace. But 
Paul would not accept this message. The}* had been publicly 
maltreated and condemned to prison, he urged, in defiance of 
the law which forbade the scourging of Roman citizens ; and 
were they now to be smuggled out in secrecy ? No ! let the 
magistrates themselves come and conduct them out of the 
prison honorably ! When the duumvirs received this mes- 
sage, they were alarmed to find that they had unwittingly 
infringed upon the privileges of Roman citizens ; so they led 
them out of the prison with a courteous apology, and begged 
them to leave the city for fear of fresh commotions. Ac- 
cordingly they took leave of the brethren in Lydia's house, 
and then departed. 

We cannot accept this narrative as true. The conduct of 
the magistrates, who have no good reason either for their 
savage enmity at first or their remarkable courtesy afterwards, 
the conduct of Paul himself, who does not plead his Roman 
citizenship till too late, the superfluous miracle of the earth- 
quake which in some way causes all the fetters to fall from 
the prisoners' limbs, the wonderful self-restraint of the prison- 
ers themselves, not one of whom escapes, Paul's knowledge of 
the fact, though he is situated in the inmost cell and all is dark- 
ness, — these and other such features in the story put it beyond 
all doubt that it is a fiction framed on the model of the miracu- 



GOSPEL IN EUROPE. 567 

lous deliverance of the Twelve, and afterwards of Peter. 1 The 
only circumstances we can accept as facts arc that a slave- 
girl who was possessed shouted after Paul, which the eye- 
witness mentions, and that the preachers were severely han- 
dled at Philippi, as we are told elsewhere, probably by Paul 
himself. 2 

The preachers rf Christ now followed the great highway 
through Amphipohs and Apollonia, and in four days reached 
Thessalonica, the capital of the second district of Macedonia, 
an important and populous commercial centre. Undaunted 
b}* their sufferings at Philippi, they resumed their task at 
Thessalonica and met with great success. Their gospel found 
ready access, and a community of heathen was soon estab- 
lished who received it as a message from God with so much 
warmth that the new religion rapidry spread ; and in conse- 
quence of the close intercourse between Thessalonica and the 
surrounding country, and its extensive commercial relations 
with other places, the news of the movement spread far and 
wide. 3 Not that there was no resistance. Constantly, and 
from the very first, the believers had much to endure from 
their unconverted fellow-townsmen ; but in spite of every 
thing they were filled with joy to think of the salvation that 
awaited them, for the preachers had warned them from the 
first that they must expect to be oppressed before the Christ 
should return, bringing blessings and glory to all who had 
confessed him. 4 It is probable, too, that the preachers were 
greatly harassed and at last expelled bj T the Jewish residents 
at Thessalonica, who could not endure that the kingdom of 
God should be promised to the heathen. This premature 
departure was a great grief to Paul, for he had thoroughly 
set his heart on establishing a flourishing community, and he 
had not been able to stay as long as he wished or thought 
necessary. 5 

The book of Acts makes Paul conform to the rule which it 
has imposed upon him before, 6 and begin by demonstrating to 
the Jews in the s}~nagogue, on three successive Sabbaths, that 
the Scripture foretold the suffering and resurrection of the 
Messiah, and proved that Jesus was he. The author has 

i See pp. 496 ff., 499 ff., 540, 541. 

2 1 Thessalonians ii. 2 ; compare 2 Corinthians xi. 25. 

8 1 Thessalonians i. 7-9, ii. 13, 14. 

4 1 Thessalonians i. 6, 10, ii. 14, iii. 3, 4. 

5 1 Thessalonians ii 15 ff. 6 See p. 540. 



568 GOSPEL IN EUROPE. 

preserved the name of the man with whom Paul and Silas 
sta} T ed, which was Jason, and the names of three other breth- 
ren who subsequently accompanied Paul upon some of his 
journe} T s, — namely, G-aius, Aristarchus, and Secunclus. His 
account of the termination of Paul's visit is as follows : When 
the gospel had made great way, especially among the prose- 
lytes and distinguished women, the Jews became jealous, 
stirred up a good-for-nothing rabble to make a riotous attack 
upon Jason's house in hopes of finding the preachers there, 
and, failing in this, dragged Jason himself and certain other 
Christians before the magistrates. They accused them of 
harboring men who were turning the world upside down and 
demanding allegiance to their king, Jesus, instead of the em- 
peror. But the authorities set Jason and the rest at liberty 
when they had given sureties for the conduct of their guests. 

Under cover of night the preachers now made their way to 
Berea, where according to the Acts the}^ again addressed 
themselves expressly to the Jews. They found them more 
willing to hear them, more interested in what they said, and 
less wedded to their prejudices than their fellow-believers at 
Thessalonica had been ; and their labors met with success. 
But the Jews of Thessalonica, hearing that Paul was preach- 
ing the gospel at Berea, went after him and succeeded in 
stirring up the mob against him. The faithful, of whom So- 
pater alone is mentioned b} r name, immediately convej'ed 
Paul to the sea- shore and escorted him to Athens, whence 
they returned with a request from him to Silas and Timothy, 
who had stayed at Berea, to join him as soon as possible. 

This narrative is slightly inaccurate in certain points. In 
reality, when Paul had been compelled to leave Thessalonica 
he made more than one fruitless effort to return. At last he 
could bear it no longer, and from Athens he sent Timothy, 
though it left him single-handed himself, to strengthen the 
believers at Thessalonica under the oppression they were 
suffering. 1 

Paul at Athens ! The Gospel of the crucified Nazarene had 
reached the centre of Grecian culture, philosophy, art, and 
eloquence ! The insignificant Jewish preacher stood at the 
focus of the world's aesthetic, intellectual, and scholarly 
life! 

The very nature of the case forbade the new religion from 
making any rapid progress in this brilliant society, where it 
1 1 Thessaloniaus ii. 17, 18, iii. 1, 2, 11. 



GOSPEL IN EUROPE. 569 

could only seem a foil}', and could onty meet with ridicule. 
Love of sensuous gratification rejected the demands of self- 
denial ; refined taste was equally offended D3 7 the cross itself, 
and by the person and address of its emissaries, — in a word, 
the conception of life and the philosoplry of the universe 
which these preachers held were alike and utterly foreign to 
the tone of Athens. And yet the future of Christianit}' de- 
pended upon its power of ultimately bringing the Grecian 
spirit under the control of its influence, and availing itself of 
its manifold capacities and its noble powers. It is one of 
Paul's chief merits, one of the strongest proofs of the value 
of his doctrines, that his profound and philosophical concep- 
tions secured this victory at last. 

It was a moment of deep import, then, when the Apostle of 
the gentiles, full of zeal as ever, raised his voice in the very 
heart of Greece. But at first he excited little or no atten- 
tion, and his harvest was but small. Indeed, he had no in- 
tention of taking up his abode for any length of time at 
Athens, and after laboring there but a little while he went on 
to Corinth. Of the small circle won for the Christ at Athens 
we have the names of Dionysius — a member of the highest 
judicial body, who figures in ecclesiastical tradition as the 
first bishop (overseer) of the community at Athens — and of a 
woman named Damaris. 

The author of Acts, to whom we owe the preservation of 
these names, caught the dramatic interest of the moment 
when ChristianhVy was first preached at Athens, though he 
never grasped the meaning of the Pauline gospel in all its 
depth and compass. Here, then, he gives us a kind of coun- 
terpart to his picture of Stephen's preaching and experiences 
at Jerusalem. He borrows his colors from what he knew of 
the reception given to the gospel by cultivated Greeks of his 
own day ; and bringing Paul to the hill of Ares (Mars) , 
where the supreme court of judicature, the special guardian 
of religious laws, used to hold its sittings, he puts a discourse 
upon his lips which is distinguished by the remarkable felicity 
of its introduction and the beauty of its thoughts, but is 
foreign alike in form and substance to the mind of the 
Apostle. He tells us, then, that Paul was deeply shocked by 
the idolatiy of Athens ; and it is true that the city was 
remarkably rich in temples, altars, and statues of the deities, 
unequalled in beauty anywhere. He spoke in the synagogue, 
cortinues our author, with the Jews and proselytes, and in 
the market-place daily with any one that he could meet. 



570 GOSPEL IN EUROPE. 

Certain philosophers, too, of different schools, — Epicureans 
and Stoics, — argued with him. But one despised his words 
as mere babbling, while another taxed him with proclaiming 
foreign gods, Jesus and resurrection, — the crime for which 
Socrates in da}*s gone b}' had been forced to drink the hem- 
lock. At last curiosit3 T , which was the ruling passion of the 
people of Athens, urged them to conduct him to the Areopa- 
gus (Ares' hill) and invite him to expound these novel doc- 
trines to them. His discourse was at once a defence of 
himself and an exposition of the gospel, and he 1 attached 
it to an inscription he had seen upon an altar that ran, " To 
an unknown God." Yes ! this God whom the}' knew not ; the 
Creator and Ruler of all things ; the All- sufficing, who was not 
far from his offspring, man ; who could not be represented b} r 
an image, the lifeless product of a human hand, — even Him 
did he preach to them ! Then he urged them to repent, for 
the last judgment was at hand, — the judgment by a man whom 
God had raised from the realms of death. A man raised 
from the dead ! That was too much for the gravity of the 
Athenians. The} 7 would listen to him no longer. Some 
openly ridiculed him, others put on an appearance of courtesy 
and interest ; but the result was meagre in the extreme. 

From Athens Paul went on to Corinth. Corinth was the 
capital of the Roman province of Achaia, the seat of the gov- 
ernor, renowned from of old for its commerce and manufac- 
tures above anj T other cit} T in Greece ; marvellously favored 
by Nature, since it ky upon an isthmus between two bays, and 
was flanked by its harbors of Lechseum on the west and Cen- 
chrese on the east ; lavishly but tastefully embellished by 
art ; proverbial for its wealth, its luxury, and its licentious- 
ness. Here Paul established himself for the present, as the 
place seemed admirably adapted to serve as a centre for his 
missionary labors. He began by seeking the means of sup- 
porting himself by his trade, and this brought him into contact 
with a certain Jew of the name of Aquila. He was a native 
of Pontus, but he had just now come, together with his wife, 
Prisca or Priscilla, from Rome. The cause of their leaving 
that city was that the Emperor Claudius had ordered all the 
Jews out of Rome, in consequence, it would appear, of some 
disturbances ; but so man} 7 Jews were settled there that we 
can hardly suppose the edict was ever strictly enforced, and 
in any case it was very soon allowed to lapse. Now this 
Aquila was a tent-maker, like Paul himself ; so the latter took 



GOSPEL IN EUROPE. 571 

up his abode with him and they worked together. Whether 
Aquila and his wife were already Christians, or whether Paul 
converted them, we are not told. We only know that they 
afterwards settled at Ephesus, and are repeatedly mentioned 
in Paul's letters as believers, in whose house a little band of 
Christians regularly met, and as fellow-laborers of his own 
who had even risked their lives for him. 1 

As soon as the Apostle arrived at Corinth, he began his 
work as the messenger of Christ with his accustomed zeal ; 
and when he was joined soon afterwards by Silas and Timo- 
tlry, who came from Thessalonica, the three seized every 
opportunity of prosecuting their task. Paul himself confesses 
that he began his labors amid these totally new surroundings 
with extreme trepidation, fearing that his want of Greek cul- 
ture would be fatal to his success ; but he adds that he ful- 
filled his task in the demonstration of the Holy Spirit and of 
the power of God. 2 In view of the approaching day of judg- 
ment at the establishment of the kingdom of God, he preached 
in all simplicit}', as to first beginners, the gospel of the cru- 
cified one, whose death was the salvation of all who would 
believe. According to Acts, both Paul and his companions 
confined themselves as usual to the synagogue at first. There 
Paul endeavored every Sabbath to convince the Jews that 
Jesus was the Messiah ; but when they persistent!}- rejected 
and reviled his message, he felt at libert} r to turn to the hea- 
then ; and after that he never went into the synagogue again, 
but preached in the house of a proselyte called Justus, who 
lived close b} r . Now all this is simply dictated by the writer's 
well-known misconception of Paul's apostolate to the heathen ; 8 
but when he tells us that Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, 
became a believer, the statement finds confirmation elsewhere. 
For we happen to know that by a rare exception 4 Paul baptized 
him with his own hand, as also a certain Gaius, in whose 
house he subsequently lodged, and who exercised hospitality 
to the whole community. Before either of these he had like- 
wise baptized the household of Stephanas, who is honorably 
mentioned as ;t the first fruits of Achaia." 5 Together with 
this Stephanas, we hear of Fortunatus and Achaicus ; of 
a woman called Phoebe, who was deaconess of the communit} 7 
at Cenchreae, and rendered the greatest services to the good 

1 1 Corinthians xvi. 19; Romans xvi. 3, 4; compare Acts xviii. 18, 26; 2 
Timothy iv. 19. 

2 1 Corinthians ii. 3, 4. 3 See p. 540, and 1 Corinthians xii. 2. 
* See p. 537. 6 1 Corinthians i. 14, 16, xvi. 15, 17; Romans xvi. 23. 



572 GOSPEL IN EUROPE. 

cause ; of Erastus the city treasurer ; of Quartus and others. 1 
Thus the circle of believers gradually swelled, and was dis- 
tinguished by keen interest in the gospel and great spirit- 
ual activity. We read in Acts that the Christ appeared by 
night to Paul and urged him to preach courageously, for 
he would support him and would frustrate every hostile design, 
and there were many souls in Corinth ready to receive the 
gospel. The Apostle himself says nothing of this vision. 
He only tells us that his converts were for the most part 
ignorant men, of no position, — slaves and the refuse of 
society, — and that the previous lives of man}- of them left 
very much to be desired. 2 

Paul worked a year and a half at Corinth ; but we must not 
suppose that he never left the city all this time. He visited 
the two harbors, the places in the neighborhood, and many 
more distant cities of Achaia, — as we may gather from the 
superscriptions of his two letters to the Corinthians. 3 In con- 
sequence of these expeditions he was not always in a position 
to provide for his own support ; but he never either asked or 
received any help from those among whom he was laboring 
Some of the Macedonian believers however, probably Philip- 
pians, sent him assistance, which he thankfully accepted. 4 
Only one event is chronicled in Acts during all this period, 
and that one serves the author's purpose of representing the 
Romans as more friendly to the gospel than the Jews. Gal- 
lio, we are told (a brother of the celebrated Seneca, and a 
man of very lovable and exalted character) , was governor of 
Achaia ; and the Jews rose against Paul as one man and 
dragged him before his judgment-seat, saying that he was one 
who taught men to serve God in a manner that conflicted 
with the Law. But Gallio did not so much as ask Paul for 
his defence. He told the accusers that they had brought no 
criminal charge against Paul, and that he had no intention of 
mixing himself up with their religious disputes : the} 7 must 
settle them among themselves. Upon this he dismissed them ; 
and the people seized their leader, Sosthenes, who had suc- 
ceeded Crispus as ruler of the synagogue, and beat him, while 
Gallio looked on and did not interfere. Paul, continues our 
author, still remained some time at Corinth, and then took 
leave of the community and crossed over with Aquila and 
Priscilla to Ephesus. 

i Romans xvi. 1, 2, 23. 2 1 Corinthians i. 26-28, vi. 9-11. 

8 1 Corinthians i. 2 ; 2 Corinthians i. 1. 
4 2 Corinthians xi. 8, 9. 



GOSPEL IN EUROPE. 573 

We cannot fail to observe the extreme brevity with which 
this period of the life of Paul is treated, although the splendor 
and importance of the city, the success of the preaching, and 
above all the remarkable subsequent history of the community 
combine to make it exceedingly important. Had the author 
no means of information at command ? Or was the very fact 
that Corinth soon became the scene of divisions and sectarian 
animosities the true cause of his brevity? We are almost 
inclined to accept this latter explanation, especially when we 
remember how careful he is to make the main stress fall upon 
the Apostle's preaching at Athens, though he hardly left an} T 
traces behind him there. 

Our means of filling in the gap are very scanty. We have 
already mentioned a few details gleaned from the first epistle 
to the Corinthians and the sixteenth chapter of Romans. 
We may add that if the first epistle to the Thessalonians is 
genuine, as we have assumed it to be, then it was written at 
Corinth during this period, in the name not only of Paul him- 
self but also of Silvanus (Silas) and Timothy, who must 
therefore have been with the Apostle at the time, and who 
were also held in honor at Thessalonica as his fellow-laborers. 
This was the first occasion on which Paul had endeavored to 
make up by writing for the want of personal intercourse and 
preaching. The epistle, if authentic, is the earliest specimen 
of Christian literature. Its contents show what anxious care 
the Apostle had felt for this community, the preservation and 
prosperity of which he held to be of extremest consequence 
to the prospects of the gospel. He had dreaded the effect of 
the persecutions it had had to endure from the heathen popu- 
lation ; but Timothy had now rejoiced his heart by bringing 
him a favorable report. It appeared, however, that his an- 
nouncement of the approaching end of the world had produced 
a deeper impression than his exhortations to a spotless life, 
which he now repeated with great emphasis. He condemned 
the ill-balanced zeal which disturbed the lives of many of the 
converts, and insisted on the quiet and orderly behavior of 
vmich he had given them an example himself in diligently 
working for his own support. He also instructed them as to 
the prospects of those who died before the return of Jesus. 
The}* would not be at a disadvantage in any particular, as 
compared with those who lived to see it. When Jesus at a 
given sign — the voice of an archangel and the trumpet of God 
— should come down from heaven, the believers who had died 
would first be raised, and then they would be caught up into 



i)74 GOSPEL IN EUROPE. 

the air, together with the living, to escort Jesus to the earth in 
all his glory, and thenceforth to dwell with him for ever. 

"The day of the Lord will come as secretly as a thief in 
the night. Let us therefore be wakeful and sober," 1 intent 
on our salvation, persevering in our faith, and holy in our 
lives ! This was doubtless the substance of his preaching at 
Corinth as at Thessalonica. It was this thought that urged 
him to incessant labors ; and the field was not ungrateful, 
though it was very hard to till. The soil was fruitful, but 
was choked with most pernicious weeds. The internal con- 
dition of this Corinthian community, the first of any conse- 
quence that had been established in Greece, continued to 
demand the utmost care and attention, especially with regard 
to the lives of the members. The irnmorarhy of Corinth was 
notorious throughout the ancient world. It was here that 
Paul, from his own observations, drew his dark picture of the 
terrible moral degradation of the heathen world. Among 
the believers themselves were some who had formerly been 
guilty of all manner of unnatural offences ; and though Paul 
said, " Now you are purified and hallowed and justified," yet 
in realit} 7 the force of evil custom was not broken in a da} r , 
or the moral renovation completed all at once. 

At Antioch, at Thessalonica, and wherever the gospel was 
preached, but at Corinth more than anywhere, there was a 
sense in which the conversion of the heathen was a veritable 
casting out of devils ; 2 for a spirit of loathsome impurity, 
with many another might}^ demon of moral corruption, had to 
be expelled from them. We will therefore add, in this con- 
nection, a scene which appears in the first three Gospels, and 
represents this effect of the preaching of Christ in visible 
form. Though subsequent transformations and additions 
may greatry have obscured its original clearness, } T et its sig- 
nification is not doubtful. Let us judge for ourselves : — 

Jesus had crossed the sea of Galilee in a southeastern 
direction, and landed in the region of Gadara (or Gerasa), 
which was largely inhabited by heathen. 3 And there a man 
came rushing to meet him who had long been possessed by 
an unclean spirit. He was naked, and always lived among 
the graves. No one could tame him or even hold him in 
chains ; for whenever any one had tried, the madman had 
broken the chains to pieces and shattered the fetters. Dav 

i 1 Thessalonians v. 2, 6. ' 2 See pp. 518, 543. 



* i i nessaiomaiis 
8 See pp. 282, 283. 



GOSPEL IN EUROPE. 575 

and night he lived among the tombs and caves, shrieking, 
cutting himself with stones, and falling upon the passers-by. 
Hardly had he seen Jesus afar off when he [rushed up to him, 
threw himself down before him, and] shrieked: "What do 
3'ou want with me, O Jesus, son of the Most High? In the 
name of God, plunge me not into the tortures of the abyss 
until the last da}' comes ! " [For he commanded the unclean 
spirit to come out of him.] " What is your name?" asked 
Jesus. " My name is Legion," was the reply ; for there was 
a host of demons in the unhappy man, and they begged Jesus 
passionately to allow them to enter into a herd of swine that 
was feeding there on the mountain. He gave them per- 
mission ; and in a moment a thousand and yet another thou- 
sand swine had rushed over the precipice and were drowned 
in the sea. The swineherds fled in consternation, and reported 
what had happened in the city and the country round. Then 
the people came out to see for themselves, and there they saw 
the former demoniac, clothed and in his right mind, sitting 
at the feet of Jesus. In great dismay the} 7 implored Jesus 
to leave their country. [And when he embarked, the man 
he had rescued begged to be allowed to go with him, but was 
not permitted to do so. He must return to his own people 
and tell them how God had taken pity on him.] 

So runs the stoiy in its completed form, as given in Mark 
and Luke. Matthew has two demoniacs, 1 but in other re- 
spects is far shorter and simpler. The later traits in the 
stor}^ are partly due to misconception, for our Evangelists 
imagined that it was all to be taken literally ; but we must 
not be misled by this. We must remember that to the Jews 
tombs and swine represented the most loathsome forms of 1111- 
cleanness, and that swine stood specifically for heathenism 
regarded in its most repulsive light.' 2 Observe again that 
every means of compulsion (b} r which the ancient systems of 
law are meant) failed even to restrain the host of unclean 
spirits (which incidentally represent the great number of 
heathen deities, 3 as well as the moral corruption of the 
heathen) ; but soon the miglnrv word of Christ expels them, 
to the terror of the world which loves them. Again, when 
the healed demoniac is told to go to his own people, it is 
a charge to the converted heathen to communicate their priv- 
ileges to others. Finally, we must remember that it was a 
settled custom — in a certain sense defensible — to ascribe to 

1 Compare p. 355. 2 Compare p. 249. 

• Compare 1 Corinthians x. 20. 



576 PAUL AT EPHESUS. 

Jesus himself whatever was done in his spirit and by his 
messengers. 

The original meaning of this story therefore is distinct 
enough ; and it points us in the first instance to the fruits of 
the labors of Paul, which we shall find indicated more than 
once hereafter under the same emblematic form. His influ- 
ence and the work that he accomplished might well be cele- 
brated thus ! We have seen him carry the battle against 
heathenism into the heart of the ancient civilization. The 
gospel is now established in Europe. 



Chapter VIII. 

PAUL AT EPHESUS. 

2 Corinthians XI. 23-29; Acts XVIII. 18-23, XIX. 1-20, 23-41; 
Galatians; Mark IX. 38-40; Matthew XII. 22-37. 1 

WITH Paul's journey from Corinth to Ephesus and his 
settlement in the latter city begins the closing period 
of his apostolic labors. This period extends over some four 
years (55-59 a.d.), and was marked by the same intensity 
of successful effort as before ; but it was mournfully distin- 
guished by a violent and painful conflict with Jewish-Christi- 
anity, which threatened to make the communities Paul had 
established desert him. 

His life had been one of restless activity ever since he be- 
gan to preach the Christ. When we trace the extent of his 
journeyings upon the map ; when we remember what varied 
and formidable difficulties the traveller of those days had to 
contend against, and how rare and imperfect the means and 
opportunities of locomotion were, especially such means as a 
simple workman could command, — and lastly, when we con- 
sider the perpetual dangers of eveiy description to which 
Paul was constantly exposed, we are lost in admiration of his 
courage and perseverance, — especially when we reflect that 
the cause itself for which he traversed sea and land was one 
that involved him in constant difficulties and exposed him to 
ceaseless ridicule, opposition, aud persecution. And now a far 
more grievous trouble was added to all these ; for the S3 r steui- 
atic agitation and opposition of Jewish believers threw his 

i Luke ix. 49, 50, xi. 14, 15, 17-23, xii. 10; Mark iii. 22-30. 



PAUL AT EPHESUS. 577 

tyhole preaching of the gospel and the whole future of his 
communities into a position of extremest clanger, threatening 
more than airy thing else to destroj' the work of his life. 
But though all hope sometimes seemed lost, though his heart 
full often bled from piercing wounds, though his bodily 
strength gave way under the strain, still he persevered ; and 
the might of his spirit and the perseverance of his faith won 
glorious triumphs in the end. 1 Let us listen to his own ac- 
count, given towards the close of this period, of his experien- 
ces for the previous twentj^ 3-ears. 

Much against his will, for he hated boasting, he compares 
himself with his opponents. There was not one of them who 
had labored so unremittingly, who had so often braved mal- 
treatment, imprisonment, and mortal peril for the sake of 
Christ, as he had done. "Five times have I received forty 
stripes save one from the Jews ; thrice have I been beaten 
with rods [b} T the Romans] ; once have I been stoned ; 
thrice have I suffered shipwreck ; a whole day and night have 
I been in the deep," — tossed on a spar. 

Here we may pause to note that the writer of the Acts saj-s 
nothing of the heav3 r scourgings administered by the Jews in 
the S}magogue, the like of which were sometimes fatal ; that 
he onry tells us of one occasion, at Philippi, on which the yet 
more barbarous Roman punishment was inflicted upon Paul ; 
and that the latter's Roman citizenship can only be main- 
tained in the face of these scourgings on the supposition that 
the rights of the obscure Jew were constantly despised with 
arbitraiy violence. The author of Acts has preserved the 
record of Paul's being stoned (at lustra) , — an onslaught 
from which hardly an} T one had ever escaped alive ; but the 
only shipwreck of which he has any thing to tell us took place 
after this time, and must have made a fourth. 

Paul goes on to sa}- that on his numerous journeys he had 
been in constant danger of drowning as he crossed over rivers, 
perhaps swimming, or of falling into the hands of robbers as 
he journe3'ed through unfrequented regions ; that he had been 
"in danger from his fellow-countr3"men," who fierce^ perse- 
cuted him as an apostate; "in danger from the heathen," 
who onl3 T saw an atheist or rioter in their benefactor; "in 
danger in the cities" of tumultuous violence; "in danger 
in the deserts" of losing himself and dying of hunger; " in 
danger at sea " of being shipwrecked and drowned ; in 
danger, above all, of seeing his work, his peace, his liberty, 

1 See, for example, 2 Corinthians i. 8, 9, ii. 4, iv. 1G ff., et seq. 
vol. in. 25 



578 PAUL AT EPHESUS. 

perhaps his very life, destroj-ed by "false brethren," his 
Jewish-Christian enemies. 

"Toil and pain," he continues, "and watching nights; 
hunger and thirst, and constant fasting ; cold and nakedness, 
— these have been my life ! And besides all the rest I have the 
constant daily thought and care for all the churches. Never 
is one of my converts weak in faith or conscience but I feel 
his weakness as though it were my own ; never is one of 
them betrayed into apostasy or sin but my heart burns with 
shame and indignation." 

A year or two before, when he had recently undergone 
severe ill-treatment it would seem, he had written, 1 " Hence- 
forth let no man trouble me, for I bear about on iny body 
the marks that I belong to Jesus ; " and not long afterwards 2 
(in 58 a.d.), "Up to this very hour have hunger, thirst, 
nakedness, maltreatment, wandering, and heav}' manual toil 
been our lot. When reviled we bless, when persecuted we 
endure it, when slandered we render consolation. We are 
held the very refuse and offscourings of the world to this 
day." But all this did not crush him. " We are oppressed 
on ever}' side," he writes elsewhere, 3 " but not afflicted ; per- 
plexed but not despairing ; persecuted but not forsaken ; cast 
down but not destroyed." For it was in this very weakness 
that the might of his Lord revealed itself. ' ; Therefore I 
rejoice in infirmities, in sufferings, in necessities, in persecu- 
tions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weakest 
then am I also strongest" in Him. 4 

We naturally refer these general descriptions drawn from 
the letters of Paul primarily to the period in which they 
were written, and we are perfectly safe in assigning some of 
the specific sufferings of imprisonment, scourging, and ship- 
wreck to the same period. But here the author of Acts leaves 
us entirely in the dark. We saw just now, more clearly than 
ever, how very imperfect his account of the previous period 
was ; but here he fails us altogether. A great deal of what he 
does tell us is impossible to believe, and he passes over mat- 
ters of extreme importance in absolute silence. He says that 
before leaving Corinth Paul had taken the vow of a Nazarite. 
We know that this is a moral impossibility ;. but it is far from 
the only occasion upon which our author transforms the Ap- 
ostle of the heathen into a rigid Jew. 5 Then he makes him 

1 Galatians vi. 17. 2 1 Corinthians iv. 11-13. 3 2 Corinthians iv. 8, 9. 
4 2 Corinthians xii. 10. 6 See pp. 540, 541, and chap. x. p. 611. 



PAUL AT EPHESUS. 579 

leave his friends Aquila and Priscilla at Ephesus and take his 
journey — notwithstanding the entreaties of the Jews in the 
synagogue who desire him to stay with them — through Csesa- 
rea to Jerusalem. His object in going to the City of the 
Temple was to celebrate one of the Jewish feasts, and he took 
the opportunity of visiting the primitive community. Then 
he spent some time at Antioch, after which he returned 
through Galatia and Phrygia to Ephesus, where he sta3'ed foi 
three whole years. So says the book of Acts ; but we know 
enough of Paul to be sure that he would not visit Jerusalem 
for the purpose here assigned to him, nor were his relations 
with the brethren there of such a character that he would wish 
to pay them a frying visit when there was no necessity for him 
to do so. We may therefore strike out the whole of this 
parenthetical journey, and assume that Paul established him- 
self at once in Ephesus, the populous and stirring capital of 
the Roman province of Asia. We must not understand, 
however, that he made the city his permanent abode. It 
simply served as the centre of his activity, and from it he 
visited his converts in Galatia, founded fresh communities in 
various cities in the province, 1 perhaps crossed over for a 
visit to Corinth, 2 and perhaps even penetrated to the remote 
Illyria. 3 After three j T ears spent in Ephesus our authorities 
agree in making him leave this city, pass through Troas into 
Macedonia and thence to Achaia, spend several months in 
Corinth, and then return through Macedonia and travel along 
the coast of Asia Minor to Jerusalem. 

Let us begin with the visit to Galatia, which took place 
early in the Ephesian period. 

We have not forgotten the zeal and J03 7 with which Paul's 
gospel was received and embraced by the Galatians. But 
some months after his departure certain emissaries from 
Jerusalem came into the district and gave the Galatians very 
different instruction from what they had received from Paul. 
They announced themselves as coming from the original 
community and the personal disciples of the Messiah whom 
Paul had preached, and declared that these disciples, who 
were the only qualified expounders of their Master's teach- 
ing, knew nothing of the repeal of the Old Covenant, of the 
Law and circumcision, or of a new way opened to salvation 
by the so-called justification by faith. What Paul said about 
all this being implied and proved by the death of Jesus on 

1 1 Corinthians xvi. 19 ; Revelation ii., iii. 

2 2 Corinthians xii. 14, xiii. 1. 8 Romans xv. 19. 



580 PAUL AT EPHESU8. 

the cross was palpably untrue, the}^ urged ; for it was incon- 
sistent with the unalterable fidelit}-' and sanctity of God him- 
self, and in direct contradiction with the Holy Scripture. 
And as for this Paul, he was not really an Apostle at all, but 
a man who had drawn all his true knowledge of Jesus from 
Peter, James, and the communit}' at Jerusalem, had added 
many pernicious errors of his own, and now made most exor- 
bitant pretensions. His followers would certainly be ex- 
cluded from the rights of citizenship in the kingdom of the 
Messiah, which were not to be obtained by simple faith in the 
Christ without submission to the Law and circumcision. As 
for themselves, they had come in generous concern for the 
weal of the Galatians, to warn them against this false teach- 
ing, and to take them into Israel, the people of the Lord, so 
that they really might become heirs of the Messianic kingdom. 
No wonder that the Galatians were shaken in their alle- 
giance to Paul, and that many of them deserted him. A 
certain number of them, we know not how many, began to 
observe the Jewish feast days with scrupulous care, and even 
had themselves circumcised. 1 It seemed but reasonable to 
put greater confidence in the Twelve and in the Scripture than 
in the self-announced preacher who onl}~ came upon his own 
authority. But Paul's distress and indignation knew no 
bounds when he heard what had happened. He was drawn 
by the closest ties to this community of converts, as a mother 
is drawn to her children ; he had felt such special joy and 
satisfaction in them, — and now to think of their throwing 
off their allegiance and being faithless to his principles ! He 
hastened to visit them in person. Words ran high. He 
launched his curse upon all who preached another gospel 
than his. Sometimes he spoke so roundly, and told his Gala- 
tian friends the truth so plainly, that it almost seemed as if 
he had become their enemy. And when he had returned to 
Ephesus, he wrote them a letter with his own hand, which 
was quite against his usual practice. This letter was instinct 
with passion, burning alike with tenderness and indignation, 
overwhelming in its cogenc} T , appalling in its bursts of stormy 
feeling, impetuous in its attacks, and melting in its appeals. 
In a word, it was the true reflection both of the character of 
the writer and of the conflict that raged in the bosom of Apos- 
tolic Christianity ; and, at the same time, it was the glowing 
vindication of Paul's gospel against the attacks of the believers 
of Jerusalem. 

1 Galatians i. 6, iii. 1, iv. 9, 10, v. 1 ff. 



PAUL AT EPHLSUS. 581 

The first words of the epistle breathe a certain feeling of 
bitterness on the writer's part against those who would make 
him a disciple of men, — " Paul, an apostle, not of men nor 
by a man, but by Jesus Christ himself and God, the Father. " 
Immediately after the superscription and greeting, he re- 
proaches the Galatians with having fallen awa} T from his gos- 
pel to another, which did not deserve the name ; and repeats 
his curse upon the preachers who had seduced them. Then 
he gives an elaborate historical proof, drawn from his own 
past and from the critical events at Jerusalem and Antioch, 
of the divine origin and contents of his preaching to the 
heathen, and of his own apostolic independence. Nothing 
could be more false than that he owed any thing whatever to 
human intervention or influence. Then he shows that his 
gospel of justification b} T faith, without the Law, confirmed as 
it is b} x Christian experience, agrees with the divine revela- 
tion in history and in the Scripture. Was not the promise of 
salvation made to Abraham, the believer, more than four cen- 
turies before the Law ? And is it not therefore evident that 
the latter was but a temporary dispensation made because of 
sin, and that since the Christ has come it has lost its author- 
it} T over the faithful, the true children of Abraham, the heirs 
of the promise, just as much as the religious laws of the 
heathen have? Finally, he reminds them in a practical or 
hortatory conclusion that the obligation to purity of life has 
not been relaxed with the cancelling of the Law; for Chris- 
tian libert}- is not libert} 7 to sin, but is life according to the 
spirit. He spares no one ; he puts his adversaries in the most 
unfavorable light possible ; he speaks in a tone of bitterness 
of the three " pillars " of the community, to whose authority an 
appeal against him was constantly made, and whom, alas ! he 
could not claim as sympathizing with him. t; Whoever trou- 
bles you," he cries, kt shall bear his judgment, be he what he 
may!" Nay, he pushes his own views to their extremest 
consequences, and declares that any one who allows himself 
to be circumcised thereb3 T pledges himself to fulfil the whole 
Law which is impossible, has separated himself from the 
Christ, and has fallen from grace ! 

The effect produced by this memorable letter is not known ; 
but a few } 7 ears afterwards Paul speaks of certain injunctions 
he had recently laid upon the Galatians, 1 in a manner which 
implies the restoration of a good understanding between him- 
self and the majority, if not the whole, of the Galatian 
i See pp. 601, 602. 



582 PAUL AT EPHESUS. 

church. But this did not put an end to the contest, which in 
fact was only now beginning, and was destined to increase in 
violence. The fire, though smothered here, broke out with 
fresh violence elsewhere. Henceforth Jewish-Christian preach- 
ers were continually showing their zeal for the kingdom of God 
by appearing in Paul's communities, often armed with letters 
of commendation from Jerusalem, given them by the commu- 
nity at large or by the Twelve or by James, to strengthen 
them in their attempts to wrest the heathen converts from 
their apostle. 

Here let us pause and try to form a clear conception of the 
extent and nature of the direct or indirect obstruction which 
Paul experienced from the Apostles, together with his own 
relations to them and the violent hostility between him and the 
Judaizing fanatics. 

It stands to reason that if the Judaizers had not been in 
any way supported by the heads of the Jerusalem community, 
and had not been able to appeal to the personal friends and 
the brothers of Jesus, they would have had but little power 
to injure Paul. It is equally obvious that if Paul had been 
able to say that the Twelve distinctly repudiated these fanat- 
ics and, so far from making common cause with them, believed 
and taught as he did, he would not have omitted to do so, 
and would have extinguished the opposition instantly. And 
yet, however great and undeniable their differences ma}' have 
been, we might well be inclined to ask how the Apostles, 
when once they had given the hand of fellowship to Paul, 
could bring themselves to furnish his enemies with letters of 
commendation ! 

But their conduct is far from inexplicable when we reflect 
that the scheme into which the three ' ' pillars " had been 
forced by the mighty personal influence of Paul was nothing 
on their side but an uneas} T compromise, resting on no reason- 
able principle, and had broken down as soon as it was tested 
at Antioch. What ? Was there really to be one preaching 
of the Christ to the Jews and another to the heathen, — the 
one with and the other without the obligation to observe the 
Law ? It must be either one or the other ! Either observance 
of the Law was a condition of admittance into the kingdom 
of God or it was not. If it was, then the heathen must com- 
ply with it ; if it was not, then the Jews were free from it. 
The Apostles, then, were compelled either to advance or to 
retreat ; and they could not advance. 1 Paul, on the other 
1 See p. 553. 



PAU1 AT EPHESUS, 583 

hand, had remained true to his position and his principles ; 
but most likely he had not laid great stress, when in Jerusa- 
lem, upon his belief that the Law was abrogated for the Jew 
as soon as he had faith in Christ, no less than for the heathen. 1 
At an} T rate he had not worked it out and driven it to the 
extreme conclusions we have seen developed in the epistle to 
the Galatians ; he had not absolutely forbidden the observance 
of the Law on pain of exclusion from the kingdom of God,' 2 — 
for this was a deduction which at that time he probably had 
not made himself, and which he subsequently withdrew when 
his mood was less bitter. 3 Enough ! He may well have 
seemed to violate the convention in one wa} T or another, and 
so to free the Apostles from their pledge to him. And in fact 
the agreement, " You to the heathen, we to the Jews," was 
impossible permanently to observe, especially since it made 
no provision for the peculiar circumstances of mixed com 
m unities. 

Then we must remember that James was really a man of 
different spirit from Peter ; and we can readily believe that 
the systematic opposition which Paul encountered was chiefly 
his work, though the histoiy of the Corinthian community will 
presently show us that Peter also had a hand in it. As for 
the third " pillar," John, he has left no certain trace behind 
him, and we cannot rely on a single statement made concern- 
ing him. But he left the impression of having been a rigid 
Jew ; and probably the following story, preserved by two of 
our Gospels, gives a faithful picture of him and of the general 
attitude of the Twelve towards Paul : — 

On a certain da}- John said to Jesus : ' ' Master ! we saw a 
man who does not follow us casting out demons in your name, 
and we forbade him, because he does not follow us." But 
Jesus answered : "Forbid him not. For no one who does a 
deed of power in my name can straightway speak ill of me ; 
and whoever is not against 3-0 u is for you." 

Analogy and the circumstances of the case forbid us to 
think of veritable demoniacs, and indicate that the casting 
out of devils here intended is the conversion of heathen ; and 
this is further manifest from the expression of John, "He 
follows not ws," and of Jesus, " Whoever is not against you 
is for you." 4 Had it been a real event taking place in the 
life of Jesus, John would have said " you," and Jesus " me." 

i Romans vii. 1-6; Galatians ii. 15-21. 2 Galatians v. 2-6. 

8 Romans xiv. See p. 608. 

* Mark ix. 40, after an amended version. 



584 PAUL AT EPHESUS. 

Now Paul did not follow them ; that is to say, he did not 
submissively accept the views of John and his fellow Apostles, 
but preached a different gospel from theirs, and therefore they 
threw obstacles across his path. But, says our stoiy, Jesus 
would emphatically have condemned their conduct. In the 
first place, the results of Paul's labors were a guarantee of his 
character ; and, in the next place, they must regard every one 
who did not oppose them as on their side. 

And Paul did not oppose the Apostles. We can see clearly 
enough by the epistle to the Galatians how much it sometimes 
cost him. But he did make the effort, and refrained from 
attacking them. It was his desire to sa} r nothing of the dif- 
ferences of views between himself and them, carefully to con- 
ceal their opposition, and to bridge over the gulf as best he 
might. And this is why we are left without any clear and 
certain indications on this important point. The interests of 
the good cause imperatively demanded this self-restraint on 
the part of Paul ; for it was excessively difficult for him, in- 
asmuch as he had never known Jesus personally, to maintain 
his position against the Twelve in the e} T es of the converts 
Once only, when the necessity of proving his own indepen- 
dence compels him to recount his dispute with Peter at 
Antioch, — once only does he violate this reserve. 

But he goes to work veiy differently with the Judaizing 
fanatics who appealed to the authorit} 7 of the Twelve. He 
did not spare them for a moment, but sometimes attacked 
them with the greatest violence, and even threw aspersions 
on their character. In short, he returned their criminations 
with interest. 1 He called them " false apostles, hypocritical 
laborers, who put on the appearance of apostles of Christ. 
What wonder? Did not Satan himself put on the appearance 
of an angel of light ? And was it any thing strange for his 
servants to put on the appearance of the servants of righteous- 
ness ? But their end should be in accordance with their 
deeds ! " 2 Such were the recriminations that passed back- 
wards and forwards ; 3 and it is exceedingly curious to note 
the traces of this conflict, which was carried on for man} T and 
many a year, still left in our Gospels. Thus we find the fol- 
lowing words laid by the Jewish-Christians upon the Master's 
lips : " I tell you truly, that, while this heaven and earth en- 
dure, not one tittle or one iota of the Law shall fail till all be 

1 See pp. 546, 547, and Philippians iii. 2; see chap. xi. p. 624. 

2 2 Corinthians xi. 13-15. 

» Revelation ii. 2, 9, 20, 24, et seq. See chap. xii. p. 643. 



PAUL AT EPHESUS. 585 

strictly kept. And whosoever shall cancel even the smallest 
of these commandments, and teach others to do so, shall be 
counted the least in the kingdom of heaven ; but whosoever 
shall keep them all, and teach others to do so, shall be counted 
great in the kingdom of heaven." 1 It is obvious that Jesus 
could not have spoken in such a strain without absolutely 
contradicting himself; but those who put the words upon his 
lips as a condemnation of Paul and his supporters did not see 
this incongruity, and in a certain sense they acted in good 
faith. Again, when they made Jesus forbid the preaching to 
the heathen in the words, "Give not that which is holy to the 
dogs nor throw your pearls before the swine, lest they should 
trample them under their feet and then turn upon you and 
rend you," 2 the}' meant to represent the sufferings endured 
by the messengers to the heathen as nothing in the least to 
their honor, but simply as the result of their own perversity ; 
but the}* did not see that at the same time the}' were branding 
the conduct of Jesus himself in associating with publicans 
and sinners. Still more violent is the attack contained in the 
warning, of no doubtful purport, put into the mouth of Jesus, 
" Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's cloth- 
ing, but are ravening wolves within ! " 3 It appears that Jesus 
had spoken in tones of warning of the numbers who would 
find themselves deceived in their expectations when the king- 
dom of God should come, and the orthodox party gave his 
words a turn which converted them into a condemnation of 
Paul and his fellow-laborers ; for the latter appealed to the 
results of their labors and the sicmal manifestations of the 
Spirit in their communities as the unmistakable guarantee of 
their mission and the stamp of God's approval ; 4 but their 
opponents made Jesus utter the sentence of condemnation 
upon those who, while casting out devils (converting heathen) 
neglected the Law : " Many will say to me on the last day, 
' Lord, Lord ! have we not labored as prophets in thy name, 
and in tlry name cast out demons, and in thy name done 
man}' deeds of power?' And then shall I answer them, 
' Never have I acknowledged or known you. Away from me 
ye who neglect God's law ! ' " 5 

But the Pauline Christians paid them back in the same 
coin. The}' too made use of that very saying of the Master's, 
which their adversaries turned against them ; but in theii 

i Matthew v. 18, 19. 2 Matthew vii. 6. 

8 Matthew vii. 15. 4 Galatians ii. 7, 9, iii. 2, 5 et seq. 

6 Matthew vii. 22, 23. 

25* 



586 PAUL AT EPHESUS. 

hands it became a threat against the Jewish-Christians, — fot 
these latter were constantly appealing, against the Apostle of 
the heathen and his followers, to the personal relations in 
which they or their leaders had stood to Jesus ; 2 and accord- 
ingly the Paulinists made Jesus say : " When you are rejected 
and shut out from the kingdom of God, 2 30U will begin to 
say, ' We have eaten and drunk before thy very e3 r es, and in 
our streets hast thou taught.' But the Christ will answer, 
' I tell 3 t ou I know not whence 3011 are. Away from me all 
ye workers of unrighteousness ! ' " 3 They disarmed the sol- 
emn declaration of the permanent validity of the whole Law 
by modif3 T ing it thus : " It is easier for heaven and earth to 
pass away than for one tittle of my words to fail." 4 Again, 
they make the Master chastise with ruthless severity the 
" false brothers," whose zeal carried them far and near to 
propagate Jewish-Christian principles in the communities of 
heathen converts : " You traverse sea and land to make one 
convert, and when he is gained you make him twofold more the 
child of hell than 3 r ourselves," — that is to sa3 T , twice as in- 
tolerant and fanatical. 5 Such at least we may regard with high 
probabilit3 r as the original significance of this attack, which 
is now incorporated in the celebrated denunciation of the 
Scribes and Pharisees, culminating in the outburst, " Ye ser- 
pents ! ye generation of vipers ! How shall 3 T e escape the fire 
of gehenna? " 6 There at any rate it is quite out of place, for 
the Jews were never zealous proselytizers. Just in the same 
wa3 T we find elsewhere the Judaizing zealots who ascribed the 
success of Paul and his fellow-workers to an alliance with 
the prince of the false gods or demons, the god of the heathen 
world, represented as Pharisees who slander Jesus but are 
refuted and put to shame b3 T him. We find this picture in all 
the three Gospels : — 

One day the3 T brought a man to Jesus who was possessed 
by a devil that made him blind and dumb. He healed him, 
so that he could see and speak. Then the multitudes were 
filled with amazement, and asked, "Ma3 T not this man be the 
son of David ? " But when the Pharisees heard it the3 T said> 
" He only drives out demons 03- the help of Beelzebul, their 
prince." Then Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, "Any 
kingdom that divides against itself is near its fall, and no 
city or famity that is divided against itself can stand ; and if 

a 1 Corinthians i. 12 ; 2 Corinthians x. 7. 2 See pp. 342, 343. 

3 Luke xiii. 26, 27. 4 Luke xvi. 17, after another version 

6 Matthew xxiii. 15. 6 Matthew xxiii. 33. 



PAUL AT EPIIESCS. 587 

Satan is driving out Satan, then he is divided against himself, 
and how can his kingdom stand? And again, if I east out 
demons in the might of Beelzebul, in whose might do your 
followers cast them out? Let them be your judges ! But if 
I oast them out by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God 
is come to you. For how can an}' one go into a strong man's 
house and take away his goods unless he has first bound him ? 
If he has bound him, he can do as he will. Whoever is not 
with me is against me, and whoever does not help me to 
gather is scattering abroad. And therefore I tell }ou that 
every kind of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men except 
blasphemy against the Spirit. Even those who speak against 
the Son of Man ma}' be forgiven ; but he who speaks against 
the Holy Spirit shall neither be forgiven in this world nor in 
the world to come." 

So the story is told in Matthew, who gives it again else- 
where but without repeating the refutation and rebuke. 1 It 
is in this connection that he gives the sayings of Jesus about 
" the tree and its fruits," and about the account which men 
will have to give at the last judgment of every idle word they 
have spoken, so that the}' may be admitted or excluded, ac- 
cording to what they have said. 2 Mark has modified or 
dropped more than one detail in the miracle itself, in the 
charge that is founded on it and in the defence of Jesus. In 
fact, he misunderstands the whole, and presents it in such a 
form that we can hardly recognize its original meaning. The 
third Gospel also obscures the sense by separating passages 
that belong to each other. Taken literally, the whole thing 
is hardly comprehensible ; and neither the proof that the 
kingdom of Satan would be divided against itself, nor the 
appeal to what the disciples of the Pharisees themselves are 
doing, nor the distinction between blasphemy against the Son 
of Man and blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, have any in- 
telligible meaning. This final distinction obviously transports 
us to the time when Jesus was already gone, — ■ to the age of 
the Spirit, when Paul and his fellow-laborers converted the 
blind heathen who were helplessly swayed with the dumb 
idols. 8 His opponents strove to obliterate the powerful im- 
pression which his successful labors had produced by ascribing 
the result to an alliance with Satan. 4 From their own point 
of view they were partially justified in this. Was it not hea- 

1 Matthew ix. 32-34. 2 gee p. 159, and Matthew xii. 36, 37. 

8 Compare Matthew xii. 22 with Romans ii. 19 ; 1 Corinthians xii. 2. 
* Reveiatioc ii. 2, 9, 13, 24. 



588 PAUL AT EPHESUS. 

thenish (that is devilish) doctrine to teach that the Law was 
abrogated, that a heathen mode of life was permissible, and 
even that eating meat from animals sacrificed to idols was a 
matter of no consequence ? But Paul's friends were deeply 
wounded by this aspersion. It was blasphem) against the 
Holy Spirit, the workings of which were so manifest in the 
progress of the hrathen conversions and in the hearts of the 
Greek believers. This blasphemy implied more guilt, more 
obstinate and wilful blindness, and was therefore less to be 
forgiven, than the rejection of Jesus himself in days gone by 
at the hands of the Jews. And when the Jewish-Christians 
themselves made converts, did the}' use any other means than 
Paul's? Would Satan himself help to convert his own wor- 
shippers to God? Was it not clear, on the contraiy, that 
this might}' ruler of the world was bound, and that one 3~et 
stronger than himself had broken into his house and was 
taking his possessions from him ? It was the work of God's 
Spirit. It was the proof that his kingdom was at hand. All 
who at this supreme hour were not helping to gather into the 
fold, all who were introducing divisions and confusion, were 
resisting the Christ. Let every man beware of the un- 
pardonable sin ! 

Observe the accurac}- with which the parties and the wea- 
pons they used are sketched ! And if we compare this stoiy 
with the one already given * about John's appeal to Jesus, we 
shall see how widety the attitude of the Apostles themselves 
toward the great teacher of the heathen differed from that of 
the Judaizing fanatics who appealed to their authority. The 
former did indeed throw obstacles in his way, but without a 
thought of animosity, without the least ascription of unworthy 
motives to him ; the latter shrank from no means of destin- 
ing his influence, — threw vile aspersions on his personal 
motives, blackened his character, and denounced him as an 
emissary of Satan. Paul, on his side, does not attack the 
Apostles, even though he thinks them open to blame ; but 
both he and his friends pronounce the heaviest condemnation, 
in the strongest possible terms, upon the Judaizers. 

From this digression let us now return to the work of the 
Apostle in the province of Asia. This work centred round 
Ephesus, the capital of the province, the greatest and most 
important commercial city, and the great emporium of Asia 
Minor. Here Paul resumed his trade, and very likely lived, 

1 See p. 583. 



PAUL AT EPHESTTS. 589 

as he had done at Corinth, with his friends Aqnila and Pris- 
cilla, at whose house a band of believers gradually began to 
hold their regular mee tings. 1 According to Acts, Paul began by 
preaching for three months in the synagogue, but met with so 
much unbelief and opposition on the part of some of the Jews 
ithat he was compelled to withdraw together with his followers. 
After this he taught every day in ' ' the school of Tyrannus ; '' 
but whether this was simply the name of a certain lecture 
hall, or whether Tyrannus was a converted heathen, we are 
not told. This went on for two 3-ears, until — as our author 
says with rhetorical exaggeration — all the inhabitants of the 
province, both Jews and Greeks, had heard the word of the 
Lord. He also gives us indirectly to understand that Paul 
found a communit} T of converted Jews already established at 
Ephesus, and that they now joined him. 2 These details are 
not certain, but they may be true. 

On the other hand, the three following stories are all of 
them open to the gravest suspicion. They are given in the 
book of Acts, and are intended to vindicate Paul's apostolic 
dignity : — 

The first informs us that he found a band of about twelve 
believers at Ephesus ; and that when he asked them whether 
thej had received the Holy Spirit, the}^ answered that they 
had never so much as heard that there was any Holy 
Spirit, or that any one could receive it at all. Then it ap- 
peared that the}' had only received the baptism of John, 
with the obligation to repent and believe in the future Mes- 
siah. When Paul had bettered their knowledge they desired 
to be baptized as believers in Jesus ; and when he laid his 
hands upon them they received the Holy Spirit, spoke with 
tongues, and prophesied. This story is transparently intended 
to vindicate Paul's equalit}'' in privilege with Peter and John, 
whom we shall presently see giving the Holy Spirit to believ- 
ers who had not yet received it, b}' laying their hands upon 
them. 8 But though it is out of the question to accept the 
story as it stands, yet we dare not say that no historical 
reminiscence lies at the root of it. 

The second story, which serves the same purpose as the 
first, is a pure fiction. God worked wonderful miracles by 
the hand of Paul, so that sick people were actually cured and 
demons expelled by napkins or aprons taken from his person 

1 See p. 570, and 1 Corinthians xvi. 19 (where the Roman Catholic version 
leads " Aquila and Priscilla, whose guest I am "). 

2 Acts xviii. 27, xix. 9. 3 Acts viii. 15-17. 



590 PATH. AT EPHESTJS. 

to the sufferers. 1 Really we might be reading a mediaeval 
legend of a saint's or martyr's relics ! 

The third story tells us how the fame of Paul became so 
great that it excited emulation. Certain wandering Jewish 
exorcists, the seven sons (or disciples) of the high priest 
Sceva, tried the efficacy of the name of Jesus in a magical 
formula: "I adjure 3'ou by Jesus, whom Paul preaches." 
But the evil spirit upon whom they tried it answered : " Jesus 
I know, and Paul I know ; but who are you?" And there- 
with the demoniac leaped upon them, and they rushed, stripped 
and bleeding, out of the house. All the Jews and Greeks in 
Ephesus heard of this and were greatly terrified, while the 
name of Jesus rose high in fame. Many Christians came to 
confess the superstitious practices of which they had formerly 
been guilty, and many who had busied themselves with magic, 
for which Ephesus was notorious, brought their books to- 
gether and burned them in public to the value of fifty thousand 
drachmas (say two thousand pounds sterling). Thus the 
gospel spread and prospered mightily. Here again the ac- 
count is full of exaggerations, especially as to the value of 
the books ; for the Christians were most of them in needy 
circumstances. We must leave it undecided whether the 
kernel of this story about the exorcists is historical or 
symbolical. 

But in spite of all this uncertainty it is clear enough that 
the period we are considering was one of extreme importance 
in the spread of Christianity. Personally, in the course of 
his expeditions round about, or indirectly by means of the 
fellow-laborers he sent out to preach, Paul established flour- 
ishing communities in various cities of Asia, 2 such as Smyrna, 
Pergamus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, Colossae, 
and Hierapolis. These churches were distinguished by their 
faithful and patient perseverance under suffering, their love 
and good works, and in some cases their steadfast attachment 
to the Pauline gospel. 3 We cannot say whether Barnabas 
and Silas were still among Paul's fellow-laborers ; honorable 
mention, however, is made not onry of Titus and Timothy, but 
of many others, such as Sosthenes and Tychicus, Gaius and 
Aristarchus the Macedonians, Erastus the Corinthian, and in 
special connection with Ephesus, Onesiphorus, a faithful 
friend of the Apostle ; at Colossae, Epaphras, Philemon, and 
Archippus ; at Laodicea, Nymphas. Epaphras, indeed, ap- 

1 See p. 496. 2 1 Corinthians xvi. 19 ; Revelation i. 4, 11. 

» Revelation ii. 3, 10, 13, 19, 14, 15, 20. 



PAUL AT EPHESUS. 591 

pears to have been the real evangelist of Colossse, and to have 
rendered great services to the neighboring communities of 
Laodicea and Hierapolis. 1 Perhaps we may extend this list 
considerably ; for the sixteenth chapter of Romans, though it 
certainly does not belong to the epistle to which it is now ap- 
pended, maj r really be from the hand of Paul ; and some 
scholars have supposed that it is a letter to the believers at 
Ephesus in commendation of the deaconess Phoebe. In that 
case we must add to the Apostle's Ephesian fellow-laborers 
the names of Epenetus, the first-fruits to Christ from Asia ; 
of Andronicus and Junius, relatives of Paul and on one occa- 
sion his fellow-prisoners, who took an honorable position as 
messengers of Christ, and had joined the faithful before Paul 
himself. Further, Urbanus and Apelles ; certain women 
such as Maria, who was of much service at Ephesus ; Try- 
phena, TYyphosa, and above all Persis, — all of them zealous 
laborers for the gospel. On the same supposition of authen- 
ticity, we may also add that Paul was warmly attached to a 
certain Rufus, possibly the son of Simon of Cyrene, 2 and still 
more to his mother, who had been like a mother to the Apos- 
tle himself. And to these we must add Amplias and Stachys, 
Paul's own relative Herodion, and man}' others. In a word, 
there were numbers of believers, glowing with zeal for the 
good cause, who were ready to preach in their own cities, to 
carry the message elsewhere, and in some cases to travel from 
place to place in a more or less extended district. In the 
latter case the}" would often have to suspend or relinquish 
their occupations ; and for their benefit Paul established the 
rule, " Let him who is taught in the word impart to the 
teacher of all his goods," 3 and laid it down in general as an 
ordinance of Christ that u those who preach the gospel should 
also live b} T the gospel," — a right, however, which he declined 
to exercise himself. 4 

Meanwhile, however fruitful were the labors of the Apostle 
and his supporters, they had to struggle against manifold ob- 
stacles and many kinds of hindrance and persecution. Paul 
himself declared that Ephesus offered a wide and fruitful 
field for the extension of the gospel in the city and the dis- 
trict. " A great and mighty door is open to me," he cried ; 
but he was forced to add at once, " there are many adversa- 
ries." 5 If only the believers would have all joined hand in 

1 Colossians i. 7, W. 12, 13. 2 See p. 448. 

8 Galatians vi. 6 * 1 Corinthians ix. 4-18. 

6 1 Corinthians xv. 9. 



592 PAUL AT EPHESUS. 

hand ! But alas ! though we have no direct testimony, we 
may well surmise that even during these years Jewish-Chris- 
tian emissaries had presented themselves in the capital as well 
as elsewhere in Asia, had set their feet across the path of 
Paul, and had drawn awa} T many of his converts. If it is 
true, as we saw stated but now, that he found a small com- 
munity of converted Jews on his first arrival, then the con- 
flict was inevitable. But independently of this, when we 
reflect that a systematic and embittered opposition on the 
part of the Jewish-Christians had been organized some years 
ago at Antioch, and was appearing in Galatia and at Corinth 
at this veiy time, we can hardly doubt that the same party 
spirit raised its head at Ephesus with equal boldness and de- 
termination, and that emissaries from Jerusalem arrived to 
withdraw the converted heathen from Paul's influence, to in- 
corporate them into the people of the Lord if only as ' ' prose- 
lytes of the gate," to detach them from their gentile surround- 
ings, and wean them from their gentile life. This would also 
account for the bitterness with which Paul denounces these 
orthodox agitators as ' ' hypocrites " in the letters of this 
period; and indeed the dangers from "false brothers," of 
which he speaks as threatening his liberty or life, must obvi- 
ously be understood as resulting from events that fall within 
this period. This is another indication of the violence of the 
contest. Finally, some ten }*ears later a Jewish-Christian 
writer singles out Ephesus and Smyrna for special praise be- 
cause they had long ago tried Paul and rejected him, and 
learned to hate his gospel and his followers. 1 

Divisions and discord rending the bosom of the communnVr, 
calumny and bitter hostility pursuing him on his own ground ! 
Alas, what sorrow for the Apostle ! And all this just when 
perfect unanimity was such a ciying necessity ! If thus at 
strife with one another, how were they to hold out against 
the hatred and attacks of the Jews, 2 who were especially 
numerous at Ephesus? How were the % y to resist the crushing 
force of heathen societ}^, which threatened to bear down their 
whole work by sheer violence, and which had such varied 
and terrible power to seduce the weaker brethren to the foul- 
ness of heathen morals or the superstitiousness of heathen 
religion? We have already heard from Paul's own lips how 
he felt for and with those who were exposed to such tempta- 
tion. "Who is weak without my being weak with him? 
Who stumbles without my burning ? " and it must be to the 

i Revelation ii. 2-6, 9, 2 2 Corinthians xi. 28, Acts xx. 19. 



PAUL AT EPHESUS. 593 

constant exposure to violence that Paul chiefly alludes when 
he speaks of the " many adversaries." But nothing quenched 
his zeal or broke his elasticity. Every thing increased them. 
There was an ample and promising field of labor open to him, 
and that was enough ! In the spring of 58 a.d. he speaks of 
it as a well-known fact that the believers, or at least the 
preachers, of the gospel " are in peril every hour," and de- 
clares of himself that he " dies every day," and records, with 
some special circumstance in his mind apparently, that he 
" fought with wild beasts at Ephesus," — that is to say, was 
engaged in a conflict with savage and blood-thirsty men in 
which his life trembled in the balance. 1 Was it then, or on 
some subsequent occasion, that Aquila and Priscilla risked 
their lives to save him? Dangers constantly increased, and 
at last they rose to such a height that a few weeks after he 
had left Ephesus he wrote of the great oppression which had 
lately come upon him in Asia, against which his powers had 
no longer been able to endure, and under which he had lost 
every ray of hope that his life would be preserved, when 
" God rescued him out of so great a death." 2 

The book of Acts further records an event to which Paul 
makes no separate reference, but which is doubtless in the 
main historical, though the account is sometimes rather highly 
colored. We must know then that Ephesus was specially 
devoted to the worship of the goddess Artemis (Diana), 
whose image cut out of vine wood was said to have fallen 
down from heaven, and was kept in a magnificent temple 
which ranked as one of the seven wonders of the world. 
Now little models of this temple, worked in silver, were 
greatly sought after, especially by strangers who came to pay 
their reverence to the goddess ; and when Paul had been 
preaching two or three years in Ephesus and the neighbor- 
hood a prominent silversmith of the name of Demetrius called 
together his numerous skilled workmen and laborers, and 
pointed out to them what damage Paul was doing to their 
trade and to the worship of their goddess b}^ making such 
hosts of worshippers in Ephesus and almost all of Asia de- 
sert the gods. The combination of religious and selfish mo- 
tives soon began to work. " Glory to the Ephesian Artemis ! " 
cried the assembly, and a formidable tumult was at once on 
foot. The rioters, as a single man, made for the theatre 
where popular assemblies were usually held, and in which 
more than fifty thousand people could meet. They had seized 

i 1 Corinthians xv. 30-32. 2 2 Corinthians i. 8-10. 



594 PAUL AT EPHESUS. 

two of Paul's companions, Gaius and Aristarchus of Mace- 
donia, and Paul himself would have gone out among the 
people had he not been restrained by the disciples, and im- 
plored by some of the Asiarchs themselves who were friendly 
to him not to enter the theatre. These Asiarchs were a col- 
lege of ten distinguished citizens, appointed for a year to ex- 
ercise a general superintendence over religious affairs, and 
to provide popular games for the religious festivals at 
their own expense. Boundless confusion reigned in the thea- 
tre. One raised one cry and another another, and most of 
them did not so much as know why they were there. A cer- 
tain Alexander was pushed forward by the Jews, and was 
going to speak a word in defence ; but no sooner was he seen 
to be a Jew than a thousand throats roared out ' t Great is 
Artemis of the Ephesians ! " as if the}' would never stop. 

After nearly two hours the town clerk succeeded in getting 
silence. He went on to pacify the mob with the greatest tact. 
The privileges of Ephesus, he said, as the city of Artemis 
and the guardian of her heavenly image, were known to all 
the world, and could not be disputed ; so there was no need 
to make a tumult or do an} 7 thing rash to assert them. As for 
these two Macedonians, the} 7 had neither robbed the temples 
nor blasphemed the gods. If Demetrius and his friends had 
any complaints to urge against them, they could bring them 
before the magistrates when the courts were sitting ; and if 
any further steps were necessar} 7 , they must be submitted to 
an assembly of the people in due form. There was a proper 
way of doing every thing, and these tumultuous and unrea- 
sonable proceedings might get them into trouble as rioters. 
After this he dismissed the people, and before long the com- 
motion had completely subsided. 



LETTER TO ROME, 595 



Chapter IX. 

THE COMMUNITY AT CORINTH AND THE LETTER TO 
ROME. 

Acts XIX. 21, 22, XX. 1-6. XVIII. 24-28; 1 Corinthians; 
2 Corinthians ; Romans. 

SHORTLY after the event we have just recorded, Paul 
called the Christians of Ephesus together to take leave 
of them. Independently of this riot he had already resolved 
to quit Ephesus and Asia for Macedonia and Achaia. 1 A 
variety of motives, some of them connected with far-reaching 
projects to which we shall presently return, had combined 
to dictate this resolution. 

The community at Corinth was the object of the Apostle's 
special concern, and he longed to be with the brethren there 
once more. If, as we have supposed, he had paid them a 
visit from Ephesus, some time before, it can only have been 
a short one ; and, in consequence of the misconduct of some 
of the Christians and the severity with which he had been 
compelled to chastise them, it had left a painful impression 
behind it. 2 He had also sent a letter to Corinth ; but it is 
now lost, and we only know that it contained the injunction 
to avoid intercourse with immoral persons. Paul meant im- 
moral members of the community ; but the Corinthians under- 
stood his expression generally, and this made, the injunction 
absolutely impossible to comply with, and therefore foolish. 
He was thus compelled to return to the same point afterwards 
and explain that the judgment of the heathen must be left 
with God ; but that if a Christian became guilty of unchastity, 
drunkenness, idolatry, or extortion, he must be excluded from 
the tables of the brethren. 3 Immorality, sometimes of a very 
gross description, still disgraced the community, and was but 
too readily condoned ; and Paul demanded that a certain noto- 
rious offender should be punished with extreme severity, by 
being solemnly given up to Satan, the god of the heathen 
world, by the curse of excommunication. 4 But there were 
other matters also in which this church gave Paul occasion 
for anxiety and sorrow. 

1 1 Corinthians xvi. 5-9. 2 2 Corinthians xiii. 1, 2, ii. 1, xii. 14, 21, 

* 1 Corinthians v. 9-13. * 1 Corinthians v. 1 ff. 



596 LETTER TO ROME. 

There was much , however, in which he could heartily rejoice, 
and with this we will begin. The community had been greatly 
strengthened and extended, especially by the preaching of a 
certain Apollos, a Jew of Alexandria, well skilled in the 
symbolical interpretation of the Scripture, which flourished 
in that city. Arriving at Ephesus in Paul's absence, he 
had been won for the Pauline gospel by Aquila and Priscilla, 
had come over with letters of commendation to Achaia, and had 
labored with great success. All this is told us in the book 
of Acts and is indirectly confirmed b}' Paul himself; for 
he speaks of Apollos as a fellow-worker of one mind with 
him, who had great influence at Corinth, and had watered 
what he himself had sown. We also read in Acts that Apollos 
taught Christianity and preached about Jesus before he had 
received the instructions of Aquila and Priscilla, although, like 
the twelve disciples of whom we heard just now, 1 he only knew 
the baptism of John ; and further, that at Corinth he busied 
himself exclusively with the refutation of the Jews. All this 
may go for what it is worth. 

The community at Corinth not only grew but was also 
marked by great wealth of spiritual gifts. It could boast of 
many preachers, many members distinguished by their keen- 
ness of spiritual vision, besides prophets, ordinar} 7 teachers, 
deacons and deaconesses who looked after the poor and sick ; 
others who by prayer and the laying on of hands, or by the 
application of special remedies, healed the sick or did other 
deeds of power. Parallels to these phenomena ma} 7 be found 
elsewhere, in times and amidst circles where great spiritual 
excitement has prevailed. Above all, there were great num- 
bers who spoke in tongues. 2 They all looked forward to the 
return of the Christ with a longing so intense that some of 
them, perceiving that their beloved relatives who had died 
unbaptized would be excluded from the blessings of the Golden 
Age, had themselves baptized for them in hopes of its being 
accepted on their behalf. 3 

This practice, however superstitious, did no great harm ; 
but the self-exaltation of which the brethren were guilty did 
great harm indeed. The} 7 were so wise in their own eyes that 
they cared for nothing and for nobody, and considered them- 
selves qualified to pass sentence from above upon ever} 7 one, 
including Paul himself. The arrogance of some of them was 
Bimply unbounded. 4 Connected with all this was a spirit of 

1 See pp. 588, 589. 2 1 Corinthians i. 5, 7, xii. 4-11, 28. 

8 1 Corinthians xv. 29. 4 1 Corinthians iii. 18, iv. 3, 7 ff., 18. 



LETTER TO ROME. 597 

sectarianism which wofully divided the community. A Jew- 
ish-Christian party had been formed here also. It appealed, 
and must have had some right or some reason in its appeal, 
to the authority of Cephas (Peter) the Apostle of the Jews ; 
it called itself after him, and denied or detracted from the 
apostolic dignitj^ of Paul. 1 The liberal party called them- 
selves followers of Paul in distinction from the others. But 
here the matter did not rest. There were some of the liberals 
who had perhaps been converted b} r Apollos and felt warmly 
attached to him ; or perhaps the} 7 had learned to look down 
upon Paul's simple teaching when they had come under the 
spell of the Alexandrian's brilliant gifts, his eloquent address, 
his speculative profundity, and his s} T mbolical interpretation 
of the Scriptures. Be this as it may, they called themselves 
after Apollos. Again, there was a section of the orthodox 
part} T that raised another cry. They had probably come from 
Jerusalem 2 provided with letters of commendation ; and by 
way of throwing Paul (who had never been in any personal 
relations with the Christ) into the shade, and so excluding 
him and all his party, they hit upon the idea of calling the; n- 
selves and their followers the adherents of Christ, on the 
ground that they had known the Christ themselves, or at airy 
rate were in close relations with his genuine Apostles. 3 

The Jewish-Christian party showed its usual animosity 
against the Apostle of the heathen, as we may see from a 
single example. Paul's opponents managed to turn the very 
disinterestedness which formed so sharp a contrast with the 
conduct of the new Palestinian preachers into a weapon 
against him. They told the Corinthians that his settled 
principle of never receiving any thing from them showed that 
he was himself conscious that he had no real claim to the 
name of Apostle, and had not been sent by the Christ. 4 
There is eveiy indication that in Corinth even more than 
elsewhere the conflict took a personal character, to which the 
principles at issue were more or less subordinated. But the 
two aspects of the dispute were always closely connected to- 
gether. The Jewish-Christian teachers, however, do not 
seem to have pitched their claims so high in Corinth as thev 
had done in Galatia. Apparently they did not insist upon 
circumcision, the observance of Jewish rest-da} T s, feasts, and 
fasts, or other such matters. Indeed, it would seem that 

1 See p. 549. 2 2 Corinthians iii. 1, xi. 22. 

8 1 Corinthians i. 12, ii. 4, iii. 4, 22 ; 2 Corinthians x. 7 ; compare p. 585. 

4 1 Corinthians ix. 1 ff- 



598 LETTER TO ROME. 

even in Galatia they had not demanded the strict observance 
of the whole Law ; 1 and we can therefore well believe that 
here, in the land of culture, they shrank from the insuperable 
difficulties of introducing the national usages that rendered 
them ridiculous in Grecian eyes. 2 Finally, the love of argu- 
ment and disputation so characteristic of the Greeks con- 
tributed powerfully towards the undesirable state of things at 
Corinth by making the Christians look upon the gospel as a 
matter of doctrine rather than life, and eagerly seek out points 
upon which they could argue with each other. 

Paul was further grieved by the want of love manifested in 
the fact that the Christians sometimes had lawsuits with each 
other rather than risk any loss or injustice ; and even called 
each other before the heathen judges instead of at any rate 
choosing brethren to act as arbitrators in their quarrels. 8 
And the same want of love was manifested at the brotherly 
meals of the faithful, consecrated to the united commemoration 
of the Lord ; for the richer members had fallen into the evil 
habit of seizing with indecorous haste what they had brought 
themselves, instead of waiting till the food was served round 
and each could have his share, — so that, while they were feast- 
ing themselves sometimes to excess, others who had not been 
able to bring an}^ thing with them were obliged to look on in 
hunger, unless they happened to belong to their party or to 
be among their friends. The Apostle, regarding this as a 
slight to the community and an insult to the poor, held it an 
abuse of the institution of the common meal, and recognized 
the prevalence of sickness and death among the brethren as 
its punishment. 4 

Yet, again, the confusion that prevailed in the meetings of 
the communit} 7 was a source of pain to the Apostle. All 
strove to be first, and mutual service was regarded as humili- 
ating. Women came forward at these meetings, which Paul 
regarded as ven T scandalous. The} T even led in praj T er and 
prophecy with their heads unveiled. Sometimes every one 
attempted to prophesy at the same time, and all vied with 
each other for attention. Finally, speaking with tongues was 
carried to such an excess that a heathen casualty entering the 
assembly would suppose that they were raving. 5 

Paul had received some information on these points, es« 
pecially about the sectarian jealousies, from the members of 

1 Galatians vi. 13, v. 3. 2 1 Corinthians vii. 18. 

8 1 Corinthians vi. 1 ff. ; compare Matthew v. 39-41. 

4 1 Corinthians xi. 17 ff. 5 1 Corinthians xi. 2 fi., xii. 1 ff., xiv. 



LETTER TO ROME. 699 

& certain Cloe's household. Subsequently he had received a 
letter from the Corinthian community, — probably brought to 
him by Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus, — asking for 
instructions as to marriage and the unmarried state, the pro- 
priety of joining in sacrificial meals and eating the flesh of 
animals that had been sacrificed, the value of spiritual gifts, 
and other matters. 1 The bearers of this letter gave him full 
information of the state of things at Corinth ; and though he 
intended soon to go there himself and put the arrogant pre- 
tenders who had spoken so contemptuously of him to the test, 
he determined first to send Timothy, his beloved and trusted 
son in the Lord, to remind the Corinthians how he ordered 
his life as the messenger of Christ, and how he preached 
everywhere and in all the churches. Meanwhile he gave a 
second letter (1 Corinthians) to the three Corinthian dele- 
gates, who were now about to return, and would arrive at 
Corinth before Timoth} T who was travelling through Mace- 
donia. In this letter he begged the community to receive 
Timothy, as a worthy preacher of the gospel, with friendship 
and respect, that he might not be too diffident ; and then to 
escort him on his wa} r back. Apollos was with Paul at 
Ephesus at this time, and not at Corinth ; and Paul had en 
treated him, perhaps at the instance of the Corinthians, to 
accompany Stephanus and the other two to Corinth, and help, 
among other things, to check the partj T feeling. But Apollos 
had steadily declined, saj-ing he could not go till it fell in with 
his plans to do so. 2 

The letter was written in Paul's own name and in that of 
Sosthenes, to whom, perhaps, he dictated it. This Sosthenes 
was one of the brethren held in high estimation at Corinth, 
and happened to be with Paul at the time. After a friendly 
introduction, the letter begins with a rebuke of sectarianism. 
As long as one says, ' ' I am of Paul ;" another, " I of Apol- 
los ; " a third, " I of Cephas ; " a fourth, " I of Christ," — 
the}^ all show that they are far from the spirituality of the 
gospel, and forget that all the preachers are but servants of 
God — no more. Presently he begins to answer their specific 
questions : It is good to marry, but considering how near 
the world is to its end it is better still not to marry ; but in 
this matter every one must be guided by his knowledge cf 
himself, must act circumspectly, and must remember what is 
due to others. The use of meat from beasts that have been 

i 1 Corinthians i. 11, vii. 1 fL, viii. 1 ff., xii. 1 fL, xv. 1 fL, xvi. 17. 
2 1 Corinthians iv. 17, xvi. 10-12. 



600 LETTER TO ROME. 

sacrificed to idols is a matter of indifference to those who 
really understand the subject and have risen above all preju- 
dice ; but for fear of inducing the brother of more contracted 
views, who looks upon it as a sin, to follow such an example 
and so violate his own conscience, it is better to abstain from 
sitting at meat in an idol's temple. Had not he, Paul, given 
a lifelong example of disinterested self-sacrifice? And, in- 
deed, he must distinctly forbid their joining in sacrificial 
meals, for it was a sort of intercourse with demons ; but 
meat purchased in the market might be eaten with a clear 
conscience, whether sacrificed to idols or not, provided alwa} T s 
that it gave no offence. Then Paul goes on to treat at length 
of spiritual gifts, especially speaking with tongues, and lays 
it down that no more than two, or at most three, should 
make themselves heard at one meeting, and that only in suc- 
cession and when there was some one present who could 
interpret the rapturous utterances. He meets the doubts 
entertained as to the resurrection chiefly by an appeal to the 
resurrection of Christ, and he speaks of the glorified body 
of the future. He repeatedly rebukes immorality, arrogance, 
want of love, disorderly conduct, and an unseemly celebra- 
tion of the Lord's Supper. Then he concludes b} T pressing 
the collection for the believers at Jerusalem upon the atten- 
tion of the brethren, by telling them of his future plans, and 
by giving them his greeting. 

We will only transcribe the well-known verses in which the 
Apostle celebrates the glory of love, as opposed to the idle 
self-exaltation of the Corinthians, with their pride in their 
several spiritual gifts and their unchristian conduct : * — 

" Earnestly seek the best gifts. But let me show you the 
wa}^ of ways. 

" I may speak in tongues as exalted as man can utter, nay 
in the tongues of the angels themselves, but if I have not love 
I am a piece of sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. I may 
be such a prophet that I understand all the truths of faith 
hitherto unknown, and penetrate to all knowledge of God ; I 
may have the full measure of faith so that I can move moun- 
tains, — but if I have not love I am nothing. I msij bestow 
all nry goods on the poor ; I uiay give my ver} T bodj^ to be 
burned, — but if I have not love it all avails me nothing ! 

" Love is long-suffering and kind. Love envies not, parades 
not itself, and is not puffed up ; is not unseemly or grasping, 
or easily provoked. Love imputes evil to no one, takes no 
1 1 Corinthians xii. 31-xiv. la. 



LETTER TO ROME. 601 

pleasure in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth in all 
things true and noble ; covers all evil, believes all good, hopes 
against hope, and bears every thing. 

" Love never fails. Prophecies shall come to an end, speak- 
ing in tongues shall cease, knowledge shall vanish away ; for 
our knowledge is incomplete, our prophesying is imperfect, 
and when the perfect state has come then these imperfect 
things must be banished. When I was a child I spoke as a 
child, I thought as a child, I judged as a child ; but now that 
I have become a man I have put childish things awa}-. For 
now we see the things above as we see the reflection of the 
heavens in the water, all confused ; but in the kingdom of God 
we shall see them right before us. Now I only know in part ; 
but then I shall know as perfectly as I am known by God. 

" And so these three — faith, hope, and love — endure for 
ever ; and the greatest of them is love. 

" Follow after love ! " 

This letter was dispatched before Easter in the } r ear 58 a.d. 1 
It was then the Apostle's intention to remain a few months 
longer at Ephesus, to seize the abundant and favorable oppor- 
tunities of preaching the gospel there and to repel the mani- 
fold opposition. After Pentecost he intended to go through 
Macedonia to Corinth to spend some time, perhaps to winter, 
there. 2 

He was now eagerly emplo} T ed, among other things, in giv- 
ing effect to his promise to make a collection for the community 
of Jerusalem among the converts of his own churches. 3 He 
had alreadj made one such collection, soon after the conven- 
tion at Jerusalem most likely. But this time, after the lapse 
of 3'ears, he was exceedingly anxious to collect as large a 
sum as possible ; for if he could make up a handsome amount 
he would not send it (as he intended to do should it prove in- 
considerable) by representatives of the various congregations, 
accompanied by a letter of introduction, but he would go with 
them himself in the hope that he might then be well received 
in the City of the Temple, and might succeed in putting an 
end to the baneful opposition which was directed thence 
against his preaching. 4 It was excessively difficult for him 
permanently to maintain his position against the emissaries 
from Jerusalem, and to prevent his converts from falling 
away from him. The liberality of his heathen converts, 

1 See 1 Corinthians v. 7, 8. 2 1 Corinthians xvi. 5-9. 

8 See pp. 550, 551. 4 1 Corinthians xvi. 3, i. 

vol. m. 26 



602 



LETTER TO ROME. 



then, must bridge over the chasm between himself and the 
primitive community, and reconcile the latter to his work. 1 
Accordingly he had charged the Galatian Christians to set 
aside something from Sundaj- to Sunday, according to their 
several ability ; and now he made the same request of the 
Corinthians, so that the collection might already be on foot 
when he arrived, and might yield as much as possible. 2 

Perhaps he had already spoken of this matter in his former 
letter to Corinth, and had afterwards sent Tiinothy and Eras- 
tus from Ephesus to Macedonia and Achaia on the same 
errand. At any rate he impressed the urgency of the matter 
upon Titus, whom he dispatched to Corinth some time after 
writing his second letter (1 Corinthians), but while still at 
Ephesus. It appears that Titus was the bearer of a third 
letter, now lost, caused by further reports from the city which 
had given Paul the greatest pain and had hurt him person- 
alty. Accordingly he wrote a passionate letter, with many 
tears, in which he spoke with extreme severity of the person 
principally concerned, and earnestly exhorted the community. 
At the same time he gave notice of a change in his plans. It 
was now his intention to sail to Corinth direct, to pa} T a visit 
thence to Macedonia, and on his return to take ship from 
Corinth to Jerusalem. 3 

But he changed this plan also. Soon after he had sent off 
the third letter, the great danger of which we have already 
spoken came upon him at Ephesus. He barely escaped with 
his life, and settled for a time at Troas, where he hoped to 
meet Titus on his return from Corinth. But although Troas 
offered a splendid field for his labors in preaching the gospel, 
and though his efforts were actually crowned with great suc- 
cess, yet his growing anxiety as to the effect of his last letter 
to Corinth left him no peace. He repented of having adopted 
so severe a tone ; he longed with all his heart to hear from 
Titus what effect it had produced ? and at last he took leave 
of the brethren at Troas and crossed over to Macedonia, hop- 
ing to meei; his friend there. But here he was even more ill 
at ease than he had been at Troas. He had to contend against 
every kind of opposition, and meanwhile his anxiety about 
Corinth rose still higher, till at last Titus joined him. 

His arrival was a great relief and comfort, not so much be- 
cause of the pleasure of his society as because of the favora- 

i 2 Corinthians ix. 12 ff. 

2 1 Corinthians xvi. 1, 2. 

8 2 Corinthians ii. 2 ff., vii. 8 ff., i. 15, 16. 



LETTER TO ROME. 603 

ble report he had to make. 1 He had been better received 
than might have been expected. The letter had made a deep 
impression. The Corinthians, though much pained, had at 
least been shaken out of their slothful indifference. Their 
indignation with the offender or traducer, and their enthusiasm 
for the Apostle had been roused. They had taken vigorous 
steps in the matter, and were now longing for the arrival of 
Paul himself, with whose sufferings they heartily sympathized. 
At any rate a great man}" of the brethren showed a spirit of 
respectful obedience. On the other hand his delaj^in visiting 
the cit} T had made his Jewish-Christian opponents more out- 
rageous than ever in their violent or scoffing attacks upon his 
person and character. Moreover, man} 7 faults still disfigured 
the community. For these and other reasons Paul was im- 
pelled in the late autumn or earl} 7 winter of 58 a.d. to write 
a fourth letter (2 Corinthians) to Corinth before going there 
in person. This was perhaps at Philippi. He wrote the 
letter in his own name and that of Timoth3 T , who must there- 
fore have joined him again b} r this time, though we hear 
nothing of his reception and experiences at Corinth, and do 
not even know whether he had reauy fulfilled his mission or 
been in Achaia at all. 

This epistle is full of references to the manifold sufferings 
inseparable from the Apostle's work, and of expressions of 
the warmest affection for the Corinthians. Paul expresses 
nis satisfaction at the result of his last letter, defends him 
self against the charge of vacillation in his plans, since his 
reason for delajing his visit had been his unwillingness to 
come to them w r ith a severe rebuke in his mouth, and exhorts 
them to receive the guilty brother once more into their affec- 
tions, since he was now sufficiently punished and tortured by 
repentance. He exalts the dignity of the apostolic ministry, 
as that of the spirit that makes alive, above the ministry of 
the Old Covenant, as that of the letter that kills ; and describes 
how he pursues that ministry with purity and faithfulness, in 
the joyful perseverance of faith and in the hope of a glorious 
future, in spite of the terrible strain it puts upon his powers. 

Then he speaks of the collection for the Palestinian be- 
lievers. The Macedonian Christians, poor as the} T were, had 
given zealously, even bej'ond their means ; and now he had 
begged Titus to bring this work of love to a satisfactory con- 
clusion at Corinth, where he had busied himself in the matter 
rn his former visit, and where it had been in hand for a year 

1 2 Corinthians ii. 12, 13, vii. 2-16. 



604 LETTER TO ROME. 

alreacty. For thai purpose he would send him thither as the 
bearer of the letter, together with two other brethren, whose 
names are not given, one of whom represented the cornmunhty, 
while the other was a trusted assistant of the Apostle. Paul 
endeavors to commend the cause to the Corinthians in many 
ways, especially by making them feel it inconsistent with their 
own self-respect to be behind the others. All this he does 
with great tact, but also with great urgencj'. 

The last four chapters are devoted to a sometimes passion 
ate self-defence. There were abundant and pressing reasons 
for this ; and there seems also to have been a very special 
occasion for it in the shape of a project of inviting some man 
of authorit}', perhaps one of the Twelve or one of the broth- 
ers of the Lord, to come over to Corinth. 1 A certain violence 
of style pervades these chapters. In the former part of the 
epistle Paul had alreadj- defended himself from the charge of 
vacillation and the suspicion of base cupidity in connection 
with the collection of the gifts of love ; he had fallen upon 
his opponents, who had come with letters of commendation 
from Jerusalem and had asked for similar letters from the 
Corinthians to other churches, and had denounced them 
as falsifiers of God's word. He now repeats all this and 
defends his character and his apostolic dignity against his op- 
ponents, not without violent threats. In proof that his apos- 
tleship is in no way inferior, but rather superior to that of the 
vaunted Twelve and their leaders, he appeals to all that he 
had done and suffered in the cause of the gospel, and to the 
revelations of the glorified Christ, with which he had been 
favored above all others. From the Corinthian communuVv 
especially, since he himself had founded it, he demands the 
recognition and support of his high apostolic rank and his 
absolute disinterestedness, in the face of the allegations of 
his adversaries. He warns the brethren against these " ser- 
vants of Satan," and against all who came to give them an- 
other Jesus, another Spirit, or another gospel than he had 
preached and communicated to them himself. Finally, he ex- 
horts them not to make it necessary for him to deal severely 
<vith them when he comes in person. 

What the effect of this letter was we are not told. We sus- 
pect that it was satisfactory, for the treatise which Paul soon 
afterwards composed in Corinth breathes a spirit of peace. 
The Apostle was not long in following his letter from Mace- 
1 2 Corinthians xi. 4. 



LETTER TO ROME. 605 

.Ionia to Greece. According to Acts, he only spent three 
months in the latter country and then set out for Jerusalem. 
All we know of his stay at Corinth is that it brought his 
plans for the future to maturity. First of all, he would go to 
the brethren at Jerusalem to make peace with them. This 
journey must often have filled him with uneasy apprehension, 
but he was encouraged to hope for the best by the brilliant 
proofs of the brotherly love of the heathen Christians, which 
could not fail to be acceptable to the believers at Jerusalem ; 
by confidence in his own personal influence backed by the 
truth ; * and above all bj T his unshaken hope in the support 
of his Lord. After pleading his cause at Jerusalem, and se- 
curing his churches against the turbulent agitators who would 
soon lose all their influence if once renounced by the Apostles, 
he intended to cany out a project he had long cherished with 
passionate earnestness and make his way to Rome. Accord- 
ing to another account, of doubtful authenticity, 2 his plans 
included a yet wider scheme, and he intended to go on from 
Rome to Spain. But let us confine ourselves to what is cer- 
tain. 3 He was determined to visit Rome, and we may easily 
see wiry. His restless nature never ceased to urge him on 
into new and ever wider fields of labor. He had now trav- 
ersed sea and land without cessation for full twenty years, 
his life was advancing, and his work still seemed to miss its 
crown so long as he had not visited Rome and preached the 
gospel there. He had always picked out great capitals, and 
now the capital of the world had an irresistible fascination for 
him. What a glorious thought, to preach the kingdom of God 
and attack Satan, the god of the heathen world, at the very 
centre of the power of heathenism ! Moreover, if Antioch, 
Ephesus, and Corinth were the scenes of busy intercourse 
among the different nations, whence the news of the gospel 
must spread far and wide, Rome was the very heart of the 
ancient world. The seed there scattered and matured would 
be borne on the breath of the winds to all the quarters of 
heaven, and would bear rich fruits in every land. A triumph 
gained at Rome would open up immeasurable prospects. 

Then was the gospel of the Crucified as yet unknown at 
Rome? That was impossible. There was no movement of 
any interest or extent in any portion of the great empire 
which was not sooner or later reflected in the capital. With- 
out any special founder, a band of believers had been formed 

1 2 Corinthians xiii. & 2 Romans xv. 24, 28. 

8 Boxcar. t i. 10-15. 



606 LETTER TO ROME. 

at Rome by the mere arrival of travelling traders or the set- 
tlement of straigers. It was probably connected with the 
s}'nagogue, and had already gained a certain celebrhVv. But 
this was not enough for Paul. His gospel must be estab- 
lished there. He would go and preach in Rome himself ; for 
the full truth, as it was in Christ, must be proclaimed there. 

But the previous existence of a congregation, though on 
one side fortunate, inasmuch as it would give his work a 
point of attachment and support, was on the other side a 
source of great embarrassment. When he arrived, what re- 
ception must he expect ? Some of the believers were Jews ; 
and though others were converted heathen, 1 even they had no 
clear insight into the significance of the cross, no accurate 
knowledge of the wa} T of salvation, — of justification by grace 
through faith." 2 Paul knew, or had reason to suspect, that he 
would meet with opponents there who had already blackened 
his character, and allies who misunderstood or misapplied his 
principles. So he felt the necessity of paving the way for 
his personal visit b} T making the Christians acquainted with 
his gospel, and so winning their hearts for the truth in ad- 
vance, or at any rate securing a more favorable disposition 
towards his gospel and removing prejudices. To this we owe 
the epistle to the Romans, — Paul's masterpiece; the first 
attempt — and a supremely important one — to draw up a 
system of Christian doctrine. It is no controversial appeal, 
like the epistle to the Galatians ; no personal defence, like 
the two remaining epistles to the Corinthians, — but a calm 
exposition of a doctrinal sj^stem, with its commendation to 
the calm consideration of others. The circumstances natur- 
ally dictated a conciliator tone, and prominence is given to 
constructive rather than destructive elements, which puts 
this epistle into contrast more especially with that to the 
Galatians. 

After greeting the brethren, Paul at once announces his 
intention of visiting Rome to preach among the heathen there 
also ; for he felt the duty laid upon him of bringing both 
Greek and barbarian, both the cultured and the ignorant, to 
the Christ. " For in spite of contempt and persecution it is 
my pride to preach the gospel, since I know it to be the power 
of God for the preservation of all who have faith, whether 
Jew or Greek. It reveals to the heart of man the perfect re- 
lationship to God, springing from faith and leading to faith, 

1 Romans i. 5, 6, 13-15, xi. 13 ff. 

2 Romans vi 17. 



LETTER TO ROME. 607 

according to the saying of the Scripture, ' The righteous 
shall live by faith.' " 1 

Then he shows that the heathen world had been given up 
to the deepest moral corruption as a punishment for its idola- 
try ; but that the Jews also, subject to God's judgment and 
condemned by their own Law, are just as far from the right- 
eousness that avails with God. " All mankind is guilty in 
His eyes. Observance of the Law cannot possibly make any 
man just in His sight ; for the Law does but serve to bring sin 
into light." 

" But now," — and here we have the brief epitome of Paul's 
gospel in his own words, — " but now the true justification, 
sanctioned b}" the Scripture, is made accessible without the 
instrumentalhVy of Law. It is the justification of all who 
have faith in Christ b}' means of that faith. For there is no 
difference between Jew and heathen. All alike have sinned 
and fallen short of the glory of God, but are justified without 
price by his grace, by the redemption we have found in Jesus 
Christ. When he poured out his blood, God offered him to 
the believer as an atoning sacrifice for his sins. Hence it 
appears that God's long-suffering has not really infringed 
upon his justice when in times gone by he has let sins go un- 
punished, with this atoning sacrifice in view. And b}' the 
same means the true justification has been brought to light ; 
for by the cross God's justice is established, and God holds 
all who have faith in Jesus to be justified. 

"Then what ground is left for any self-exaltation on the 
part of the Jew? None whatever. What is it that has 
brought all this about? Is it the religion of legal observ- 
ance? No, it is the religion of faith. We believe, then, 
that faith without legal observance brings man into the 
true relationship with God. Or is He the God of the Jews 
only, and not of the heathen? By no means. The same 
God will save Israel b}' faith and the uncircumcised through 
faith." 

But was not this in contradiction with the Scripture? 
Quite the contrary ; for, at the very threshold of Israel's his- 
torj T , Abraham, the father of the faithful, was justified by 
faith even before his circumcision. And if this justification 
gives us peace with God and the hope of life, then two great 
facts stand over against each other as the main factors of the 
world's history: First, sin and death to all through Adam, 
the carnal man ; second, grace and salvation to all through 

1 Komans i. 16, 17 ; compare Habakkuk ii. 4. 



608 LETTER TO ROME. 

Jesus Christ, the heavenly man. The believer, made one 
with the Christ, and thereb}* released from the slavery of sin, 
henceforth leads a holy life in obedience to God. For has 
not the death of Christ completely released him from the Law, 
which brings the power of sin to light? Released from all 
bondage, awakened to a life after the spirit, transformed into 
a son or daughter of God, blessed in hope, courageous in 
suffering, certain of his future glory, — the believer rejoices 
in the presence of God's love which nothing can disturb. 

But alas ! the people of the covenant and the promises for 
the most part rejected the Christ. Such was the decree of 
God's omnipotence, let man say what he might to it ; and it 
was onty in appearance contradictory to the promises them- 
selves. Israel refused to tread the path of faith. But the 
obstinacy of Israel was itself the means of the salvation of the 
heathen worlds and thus it appeared that the Apostle of the gen- 
tiles was himself toiling, indirectly indeed but none the less 
zealously, for the salvation of his own countrymen ; for when 
once the salvation of the heathen was accomplished, then the 
object of the temporary exclusion of the Jews would be 
gained, the rejection would be repealed, and all Israel would 
be gathered into the kingdom of Christ. Oh, the adorable 
wisdom of God's government ! 

Then follow exhortations to a life consecrated to God ; to 
a good use of the gifts entrusted to each ; to love, zeal, per- 
severance, sympathy, forgivingness ; and especially to submis- 
sion to the heathen magistracy as appointed by God, and as 
his handmaid, together with active love towards men, and a 
pure life in expectation of Christ's return that was drawing 
near. 

Finally, there were some of the members of the Roman 
commuuity who thought they might eat any thing, including 
meat from sacrificial beasts, and need take no heed of Sab- 
bath, fast, or feast ; and there were others so strict that they 
would not eat any meat at all, but only vegetables, and were 
extremely scrupulous in observing the Jewish fasts and feasts. 
Now while Paul does not for a moment conceal his agreement 
with the former, he pleads for the broadest toleration on both 
sides, and especially urges those who share his own views to 
treat the others who are ' ' weak in the faith " with the utmost 
possible consideration, — not to parade their own enlighten- 
ment, not to behave in a manner that will seem offensive to 
those who differ from them, and above all never to tempt 
others to violate their own consciences. 



LETTER TO ROME. 609 

With this, or with a concluding word of praise, 1 many 
mar ascripts make the epistle to the Romans end. It would 
seem that not only the last chapter, — which is at any rate 
out of place in this epistle, 2 — but the last but one also is of 
doubtful origin. This chapter (xv.) contains a fresh ex- 
hortation to tolerance and unanimity ; a scriptural justification 
of the conversion of the heathen ; an address from the Apostle 
of the gentiles to the believers in Rome ; and an announce- 
ment of his intention of going to Jerusalem with the money 
he had collected, and then travelling to Spain through Rome. 

It was probably in the beginning of the } T ear 59 a.d. that 
some opportunity was found of sending the letter to Rome. 
Shortly afterward Paul left Corinth. According to Acts, it 
was his intention to go to Palestine by sea ; but, having 
heard of a plot of the Jews, apparently to surprise and kill 
him on his way to the port, he changed his plans and made 
his way by land through Macedonia. When he reached 
Philippi he crossed over to Troas. The passage, owing to con- 
trary winds or the damaged condition of the vessel, occupied 
five da} T s, and took place just after the Jewish Passover, ac 
cording to the trustworth}^ statements of the ano^-mous 
companion of Paul's voyages, whose narrative is again woven 
into the Acts at this point. Henceforth we shall call him 
Titus for convenience, but without at all intending to pre- 
judge the question of his identity. From the date he gives 
in this passage we may infer with great probability that it 
was now ten months since Paul had left Ephesus. 3 

Titus was not the Apostle's only companion on this occa- 
sion. He was surrounded by seven other friends from various 
districts, — Sopater the son of Pyrrhus, from Berea ; Aristar- 
chus and Secundus, from Thessalonica ; Gaius, from Derbe ; 
Tychicus and Trophimus, from Asia (Epbesus?) ; and finally 
Timothy. 4 It can hardly be doubted that these men were 
deputed by the various churches of Asia Minor and Europe 
to accompany Paul to Jerusalem with the money that they 
had raised. We have already heard of this project from 
Paul himself. The only puzzle is why no one from Corinth 
is mentioned ; but perhaps the Corinthians had not been able 
to fix upon one of their number who was capable of making 
the journey, and were therefore represented by one of the 

1 Romans xvi. 25-27 (to follow immediately after xiv. 23). 

2 See pp. 590, 591. 3 See p. 601, and 1 Corinthians xvi. 8. 
4 Acts xx. 4, wh^re "into Asia " is not authentic. 

26* 



610 LETTER TO HOME. 

other deputies or not at all. All we know is that the seven 
fiiends went on in advance and awaited Paul and Titus at 
Troas. 

This was the last occasion upon which Paul visited his 
communities, — the last farewell he took of them, though he 
did not know that they were never to see him more. Not 
only was he never again to visit these regions, which he had 
so often crossed and recrossed in every direction, hut his 
apostolic labors were themselves drawing to a close. In a 
certain sense his task had been accomplished. The contest 
he had waged for so many years with varying fortune against 
the Jewish-Christianit} T which had penetrated into the fields 
of his labor had spurred him to ever greater efforts, had 
compelled him to seize every weapon that lay within his 
reach, had forced him to penetrate } T et further into the heart 
of his own gospel and to work out and round off his own 
opinions more completely ; and thereby it had indirectly con- 
tributed towards confirming and extending his apostolic 
influence upon his own and coming ages. This remark has 
special reference to his writings, — those four marvellous 
epistles that have been preserved for us, and which were 
largely called forth by the divisions in the bosom of* apostolic 
Christianity. 

His work survived. He had toiled and striven and endured 
more than tongue can utter ; but the results of his unwearied 
efforts and unreserved devotion were proportionately rich and 
grand. It is true that the consummation he expected, — the 
glorious establishment of the kingdom of God by the return 
of the Christ from heaven, — never came. But it was through 
him personally, and to the form in which he preached his 
gospel, that the great spiritual power, destined slowly but 
surety to regenerate mankind, became the property of the 
whole civilized world. While he, together with all the be- 
lievers of his generation, still looked in vain for the glorious 
renewal of heaven and earth, he had himself laid the founda- 
tions of the colossal edifice of the Christian Church. 



PAUL AT JERUSALEM. Gil 

Chapter X. 

PAUL AT JERUSALEM. 

Acts XX. 7-XXIIL, VIII. 9-25. 

THE Apostle and his companions reached Jerusalem with- 
out hindrance. But whether the means of travelling 
at their command necessitated occasional delays of a few da}*s' 
duration, or whether the}' had a little vessel of their own dur- 
ing the first part of the voyage and paused from time to time 
by choice, in am T case they made no great haste on their wa} r . 

To begin with, they spent a week at Troas, where the fol- 
lowing event occurred : On the Sunday evening before the 
Monday morning on which they were to depart, a final meet- 
ing of the congregation, closed by a brotherly meal, was held 
in a well- lighted upper room. Paul had much to say, and 
midnight had already come, when both he and his hearers 
were horrified to see a }~oung man called Eutychus, who was 
sitting on the window-seat and had gone to sleep, fall down 
outside from the third story. As he made no sound or mo- 
tion, the}' gave him up at once for dead and raised great lam- 
entations. But Paul, who had hurried down with the rest, 
threw himself upon him, embraced him, and said : " Lament 
not thus for him ! He is still alive ! " Then they went into 
the upper room again, joined in the brotherly meal, and con- 
versed till dawn, when the Apostle went his wa} T . Meanwhile 
Eutychus had been brought in alive, to the great joy of ever}' 
one. This circumstance is recorded by Titus, and may 
therefore be accepted without hesitation ; but the writer of 
Acts appears to have made a slight alteration in the narra- 
tive, so as to give Paul the glory of restoring the dead to life, 
which he has already ascribed to Peter. 1 

Paul had decided to go to Assus, twent}* mijgs south of 
Troas, by land, and there to join his fellow travellers who 
were to go before by ship. This was done ; and from Assus 
the}' crossed to Mitylene, the capital of Lesbos, lying on the 
east coast of the island. There they spent the night. Next 
day they sailed past Chios, and the day after they steered for 
Samos ; anchored one night off Cape Trog} T llium, and on the 
next day reached Miletus. 

i See pp. 557. 561. 



612 PAUL AT JERUSALEM. 

At this point the author of Acts interrupts the narrative of 
Titus to insert from some less trustworthy authority a mov- 
ing account of a last farewell which Paul is supposed to have 
taken at Miletus of the elders of the church of Ephesus. 1 
We are told that he was extremely anxious to be at Jerusalem 
for Pentecost, and that in order to lose no time in Asia he 
sent to Ephesus from Miletus and invited the elders to come 
and see him there, instead of going to the city himself. This 
is an extraordinary statement ; for the week's abode at Troas, 
and again at Tyre, and the delay of man} 7 da} T s at Caesarea, 
within two days' journey of Jerusalem, preclude the idea of 
haste. And the Apostle certainly did not arrive till the feast 
was over. Besides, if he had really been pressed for time it 
would have been far hotter to take leave of the Ephesians at 
the neighboring Trogyhium than at Miletus, which was a long 
day's journey from Ephesus, so that the communications 
would have caused an additional delay of at least two da} r s. 
Finally, we know that Paul had altogether given up celebrat- 
ing Jewish feasts. — But to go on with the story : When the 
representatives of the chief church of Asia had joined him, 
Paul gave them a retrospect of his apostolic labors at Ephe- 
sus. He reminded them of his style of life among them dur- 
ing three successive years, of his zeal and fidelity, his patient 
perseverance, the truth and completeness of his preaching. 
And now he was journeying to Jerusalem in obedience to an 
impulse from above, warned by the prophets, from city to city 
as he went, of the dangers that awaited him there, but pre- 
pared to sacrifice ever} T thing, down to his very life, in ac- 
complishing his task. And since he knew that he should 
never more see the Ephesians or smy of the congregations he 
had founded, he now declared in their presence that his own 
conscience was clear, and conjured the overseers, as set by 
the Holy Spirit in the post of responsibilit} T , to guard the 
Church of the Lord against heretical teachers who should 
burst in like savage wolves from outside, or should rise up in 
their own midst. Finally, he commended them to God, and 
exhorted them to follow his own example of complete dis- 
interestedness (in supporting himself while preaching), ac- 
cording to the word of Jesus: "It is more blessed to give 
than to receive." After this they all knelt down and Paul 
prayed with them. Deeply grieved by his assurance that they 
would see his face no more, they escorted him to the ship and 
bade him farewell. 

1 Acts xx. 16-38; compare p. 5G2 



PAUL AT JERUSALEM. 613 

There can be no real doubt that this profoundly touching 
and beautiful address was composed at a later date in defence 
or in honor of Paul, and not really delivered by him. 1 He 
himself by no means looked for certain captivity and death 
when on his way to Jerusalem, but on the contrary was full 
of vast projects for the future. 2 He knew that he was expos- 
ing himself to serious danger, but to that he had long been 
accustomed. The prediction here put into his mouth is 
framed in accordance with the result, but in contradiction to 
his own anticipations 3 at the time. We must pass the same 
judgment on the warning against future heretics. Of course 
Paul himself never thought of such teachers, and would have 
warned the Ephesians against the orthodox fanatics if against 
an} 7 one. Moreover we know that the three years of his 
abode in Asia had not been by any means spent continuously 
at Ephesus ; nor did he ever recommend others to follow his 
own personal rule of earning their bread by manual labor 
when preaching the gospel. 4 Finally, not to enter upon fur- 
ther details, the high estimate of the office of overseers or 
bishops indicates the post-apostolic age. 

We now return to the narrative of Titus. Quitting Mi- 
letus, the party made straight for the island of Cos, sailed or 
rowed thence to Rhodes, and on the third da} 7 reached the 
Lycian harbor of Patara. Here the} 7 found a merchantman 
just ready to sail for Phoenicia, and took their passage in her. 
The vessel soon put out to sea towards Cyprus, which she 
passed on the left, and after a voyage of a short week reached 
Tyre, where she was to unload. Here the travellers sought 
the brethren, with whom the} 7 spent seven days, and who — 
after vainly attempting, in obedience to an inspired impulse, 
to dissuade Paul from going to Jerusalem, adds the author of 
Acts — escorted them out of the city with the women anc* 
children, prayed with them, and took leave of them on the 
strand ; for our travellers avoided the route by land, which 
would have brought them into contact with the orthodox 
communities, and sailed from Tyre to Ptolemais, where they 
visited the brethren and spent one day with them. On the 
morrow they crossed Mount Carmel and passed through the 
flowery plain of Sharon to Csesarea. Here they took up 
their abode with Philip the Evangelist, one of the Seven,' 

i See pp. 540, 562, 569, 570. 2 See pp. 604, 605. 

8 Compare Phihppians ii. 24 ; Philemon verse 22. 
4 See Galatians vi. 6 ; 1 Corinthians ix. 6-15. 
C See pp. 5, 14 ff . 



614 PAUL AT JERUSALEM. 

who had four unmarried daughters, all of them prophetesses 
or inspired speakers. Here they spent several days. 

At Csesarea, we read, Paul received a final warning. The 
Judsean prophet Agabus came to him, took his girdle, bound 
his own hands and feet with it, and foretold in the name of 
the Holy Spirit that the owner of that girdle would be bound 
by the Jews in like manner and delivered to the Romans. 
Then his travelling companions and the Christians of Csesarea 
implored Paul to desist from his project ; but he bade them 
cease, and declared that he was ready to brave not only im- 
prisonment but death itself at Jerusalem for his faith. Upon 
this they acquiesced in the Lord's will. . We suspect that this 
scene formed no part of the original diary of Titus, but was 
subsequently inserted ; for it is in perfect harmoiry with the 
other unhistorical interpolations, and is in itself exceedingly 
improbable. Besides, we know that this idea of Paul's feel- 
ing impelled from above to visit Jerusalem at everj- risk is 
nothing whatever but an invention by the author of Acts or 
his authority, who is determined to surround the brow of his 
hero with a crown of gloiy ; whereas the Apostle himself was 
not at all conscious of an} T such irresistible impulse, and knew 
the value of his own life as well as ever. 1 In conclusion we 
may observe that a former appearance of Agabus is equally 
open to suspicion, 2 that the careful enumeration of the days 
that characterizes the itinerary throughout disappears in this 
passage, and that other indications likewise point it out as 
an interpolation. We have therefore no right to assume 
that Paul approached Jerusalem as a voluntary mart3T to 
the Jews, rather than an ambassador of peace to the Jewish- 
Christians. 

After spending a good many days in Csesarea then, the 
Apostle and his eight companions prepared to continue the 
journey. It was now a few weeks after Pentecost. Some 
of the Cesarean brothers accompanied them, and when they 
reached Jerusalem brought them to a certain Mnason, a Cy- 
prian convert of long standing, wiio offered them hospitality. 
They were doubtless deterred by the want of a hearty mutual 
understanding from taking up their abode with any of the 
Apostles or brothers of Jesus ; and if Paul had near relatives 
in the city, as we shall presently see he had, it was perhaps a 
seasonable precaution to avoid going to the place where he 
would first be looked for. Be this as it may, their reception 
at Mnason's house was hearty, but quiet. The community 

i See 1 Corinthians xvi. 4; and pp. 602, 605. 2 See p. 535. 



PAUL AT JERUSALEM. 615 

probably did not know of their arrival, for they had intention- 
ally avoided announcing it, and it was certainly advisable to 
keep it carefully secret from the Jews. 1 To James, on the 
other hand, they announced their arrival at once ; so that on 
the very next morning, when thej" presented themselves to 
hand over the gifts of love, the} T found all the elders or rep- 
resentatives of the community assembled to receive them. 

Wliat reception did the Apostle of the gentiles and the gen- 
tile deputies themselves meet at the hands of this assembly, 
and what was the course that events took in consequence? 
Alas ! the trustworthy account of Titus is lost ; for the author 
of Acts, who had certainly reason enough for suppressing it, 
substituted for it the following stor} T , of suspicious origin 
and more than doubtful credibility : — 

After a friendly greeting, Paul began, and gave a full ac- 
count of all that God had done among the heathen by his 
instrumentality. The others listened with s} T mpathetic in- 
terest, and glorified God, but did not conceal the fact that 
the very numerous communities of believing Jews, who were 
all zealous for the Law, cherished a strong though mistaken 
prejudice against Paul which might well prove dangerous to 
him. Slanderous reports had been spread to the effect that 
he made the Jews in the dispersion apostates by teaching 
them that circumcision and the other duties prescribed by the 
Jewish religion were no longer binding. He had better avail 
himself of the present opportunhry of clearing himself from 
such imputations b} r a public act of adhesion to the Law and 
tradition ; for his presence in Jerusalem would soon be gene- 
rally known. Now it happened that there were four brethren 
who had taken the Nazarite vow, and were too poor to make 
the sacrifices prescribed for its close. It was, therefore, im- 
possible for them to be released from it without help. 2 What 
if Paul were to make common cause with them, were to take 
the vow himself for the last few days, and were finally to 
bear the whole cost of the sacrifices? Such a good deed 
would be the palpable proof that all these reports were simply 
slanders, and that his scrupulosit} T left nothing to be desired. 
Finally, the3 T reminded him that with regard to heathen con- 
verts the old agreement still held good, and nothing was 
required of them but abstinence from the four abominations. 8 
Paul unhesitatingly acceded. He joined the four needy Naza* 

1 Acts xxi. 22. 2 Compare vol. ii. p. 514. 

« See p. 554. 



616 PAUL AT JERUSALEM. 

rites, accepted all the obligations of the vow, went with them 
the following day to the temple and informed the priest that 
the days of separation and abstinence would soon be at an 
end, when the offerings prescribed in the Law would be duly 
made ; namely, a lamb, a ewe, a ram, a basket of unleavened 
bread and cakes, together with a meat and drink offering, for 
each man. 

This storj T is certainly untrue. It is more than improbable 
that Paul would have submitted to a Nazarite's vow with all 
its frivolous prescriptions ; it is utterly impossible that he 
would have consented to so hypocritical an artifice as to take 
public part in the ceremony for the express purpose of making 
every one believe that he was a strict observer of the Law, 
and therefore could not preach its abolition. 1 Nor could 
James and the elders have addressed him in any such strain, 
or made any such proposal as this ; for they well knew what 
his preaching was. And, finally, the resolution and the let- 
ter here referred to are themselves spurious. 2 The only touch 
of histor}^ in this story is the indication, which escapes the 
writer in spite of himself, of the existence of three distinct 
parties. There was the small circle of friends, converted 
hea/then or Greek-speaking Jewish believers, by whom Paul 
and his companions were warmry and hospitably received. 
There were James and the representatives of the community, 
whom the travellers visited the day after their arrival in 
order to enter into negotiations with them. Finally, there 
were the numerous Nazarenes, all of them zealous for the 
Law, who were not yet aware that Paul had arrived, but who 
would soon know it, and who hated him as an apostate that 
had led others astray. We may also readily believe that this 
last party were even more indignant with Paul for declaring 
that the Law was no longer binding on the Jewish believers than 
for admitting the gentiles into the Messianic kingdom. In all 
the other details we have no difficulty in recognizing the usual 
style and method of the author of Acts. He is so anxious 
to restore peace to the Church and reconcile the orthodox to 
the memoiy of the Apostle of the gentiles, that he utterly 
obscures his teaching. Na} T , he makes him — the writer of 
the epistles to the Galatians and Romans ! — a strict Jewish- 
Christian, who circumcises Timothy, takes more than one 
vow, makes repeated journeys to the City of the Temple in 
order to celebrate Jewish feasts, offers sacrifices, and pres- 

1 See Galatians ii. 16 ; Romans vii. 1 ff., x. 4. 

2 See p. 556. 



PAUL AT JERUSALEM. 617 

ently gives himself out as a Pharisee and claims the Pharisees' 
protection ! * 

We ma}- be very sure that the account of Titus gave a 
widely different version of Paul's reception by the heads of 
the community. The very fact that the author of Acts drops 
the narrative here and substitutes his own fictitious concep- 
tions, which disguise the whole course of the history, gives 
us reason to suspect the worst. We must also observe that 
our author tries to bury the whole cause of Paul's journe}*, — ■ 
namely, the collection, — in silent oblivion ; and } T et he knew 
about it, for he mentions it once incidentally, 2 though he 
makes it a proof of Paul's national zeal instead of a peace- 
offering from the gentiles to the Jewish-Christians, as it realty 
was. When he speaks of the collection more expressly, he 
is careful to put it many } T ears earlier, before anj T collision 
had taken place. 3 Here he represents the gentile-Christian 
deputies as simple travelling companions of Paul, and makes 
the Apostle himself come up to Jerusalem with no other pur- 
pose than to offer sacrifices and celebrate the feast of Pente- 
cost. Now for all this he had a remarkably good reason ; for 
we still possess a story which showed very clearly in its origi- 
nal form that Paul's expectation was completely disappointed, 
and that his love-offering produced a most disastrous impres- 
sion. The writer of Acts has endeavored to disarm this story 
by T adopting it in a modified form and assigning it a place in 
his narrative before the conversion of Paul, on the first men- 
tion of the preaching in Samaria. 4 No one could then sus- 
pect that it had an} T reference to the Apostle of the gentiles. 
It runs as follows : — ■ 

Before Philip arrived in the Samaritan city, a certain magi- 
cian called Simon had established himself there. He gave 
himself out as something wonderful, — as the Great Power of 
the Deity ; and had long held the multitudes in awe and 
secured their adhesion b}' his magic arts. But now they all 
accepted the gospel ; and even Simon himself became a fol- 
lower of Jesus, received baptism, and attached himself to 
Philip, whose miraculous deeds he beheld with amazement. 
Now when the Apostles at Jerusalem heard of the conversion 
of the Samaritans the} T sent Peter and John to them, who 
prayed that they might receive the Holy Spirit, and after- 
wards imparted it to them by hiying their hands upon them. 
Simon witnessed this, was seized with a desire to share their 

1 See pp. 540, 555, 556, 578, 620, 622, and chap. xi. p. 624. 

2 Acts xxiv. 17. 3 See pp. 535, 555, 601, 605. * See p. 506 



618 PAUL AT JERUSALEM. 

privilege, and offered to give the Apostles a sum of money if 
they would give him the power of communicating the Spirit 
to those on whom he laid his hands. But Peter rejected the 
proposal with horror, and launched a scathing rebuke against 
Simon : " Let him and his money perish together ! Did he 
think the gift of God could be bought ? How base the means 
he took to his end ; how corrupt his heart ; how sunk in 
iniquity his life!" Hereupon Simon, in terror of God's 
judgments, besought their intercession. 

This story forms the centre round which a number of fabu- 
lous representations have been grouped in the old literature 
of heres}'. To understand its meaning we must note the 
following points : First, that elsewhere in Jewish-Christian 
controversial writings Paul is very distinctly indicated as the 
foil of Peter, or Simon "the rock," under the nickname of 
Simon " the magician," which originally belonged to quite an- 
other man. Second, that " the baptism of the Holy Spirit," 
generally manifested in the ' ' speaking with tongues " and 
other such phenomena, was regarded as the test of admission 
to the Messianic salvation ; 1 so that the question here at issue 
is that of official reception into the future kingdom of Christ, 
Finally, that the privilege of being able to communicate this 
Spirit, which is here attributed to the Apostles in distinction 
from the evangelist, is elsewhere expressly ascribed by our 
author to the Apostle of the gentiles likewise, in accordance 
with his usual desire to establish equality and harmony be- 
tween Paul and the Twelve ; 2 so that, in this passage, we 
may regard the power of giving the Spirit as representing the 
apostolic dignit} T in its completeness. Bearing all this in 
mind, we see that this story was originally aimed at no other 
than Paul himself, who claimed the same exalted rank, the 
same apostolic dignity and privileges, as those accorded to 
the Twelve. 3 His zeal in collecting a generous love-offering, 
in the hope of reconciling the " pillars " to his work, and in- 
ducing them to recognize his converts as citizens of the king- 
dom of God, — to recognize his gospel, his work, his mission, 
in a word, his apostleship, 4 — is here placed in the most odious 
light, as an attempt to buy the full powers of an Apostle for 
gold ! And the rebuke administered on this occasion by 
Peter perhaps served in the minds of his orthodox admirers 

i See pp. 476, 486, 589. 

2 See p. 589. 

8 2 Corinthians xi. 4, 5, xii. 11 ; 1 Corinthians ix. 1 ft', ; see pp. 604, 596. 

* See p. 589. 



PAOL AT JERUSALEM. 619 

to balance the never forgotten or forgiven attack of Paul upon 
hiin at Antioch. 1 

From all this we may safely infer that Paul's whole project 
was completely wrecked. He was rebuffed everywhere ; and 
when the Jewish mob fell upon him he was left completely to 
his fate b} T the Jewish-Christians. Nay, who knows but what 
he was pointed out and surrendered to the fuiy of the popu- 
lace by the ' ' false brethren " who were acquainted with him ? 
But let us listen to the account of the upshot given in the 
Acts. We have no means whatever of checking it, and shall 
therefore simply give it as it stands, with as little interruption 
as possible ; only premising that the incredible story of the 
vow which introduces it, and the improbable character of 
man}' of its details, inspire us with well-founded doubts as to 
its truth. 

The period of the vow had not yet quite expired, and Paul 
had been a Nazarite for some few days, when ill-luck would 
have it that certain Jews from Asia (Ephesus), who were 
just then at Jerusalem, found their old enenry, whom they 
had resisted so furiously throughout his long abode in their 
native land, in the temple. 2 To see such a man in such a 
place filled them with rage and made them fear the worst. 
A little while before they had seen him walking about in the 
city with his friend Trophimus, of Ephesus ; and as soon as 
they caught sight of him in the sacred place the}' took for 
granted that he had brought this uncircumcised companion 
with him into the court of the Israelites, which no heathen 
might enter on pain of death. He was quite capable of such 
sacrilege ! So, without inquiring whether it really was so, 
they rushed upon him, and inflamed the people b}' shouting, 
v k Israelites to the rescue ! This is the man who preaches 
eveiy where to all the world against our people, our Law, and 
our temple ; and now he is bringing Greeks into the sanctuaiy 
and polluting the house of the Lord ! " 

Then the whole city was in a commotion, and a great tumult 
arose. Paul was dragged out of the temple, and the Levites 
shut the gate after him for fear his blood should pollute the 
holy place. 3 The mob would certainly have made an end of 
Paul on the spot had not an unexpected rescue saved him. 
Claudius Lysias, the captain of the garrison in the castle of 
Antonia that commanded the temple from the north-west, was 
informed that all Jerusalem was in a turmoil ; and he instantly 

1 See pp. 552, 553. 2 Acts xx. 19 ; 1 Corinthians xvi. 9. *2 Kings xi. lb. 



620 PAUL AT JERUSALEM. 

rushed down upon the mob with the soldiers and officers that 
were about him. It occurred to him that this tumult might 
be connected with a former disturbance ; for not long before 
a certain fanatic had appeared in the character of a prophet, 
had secured a certain following especially among the zealots, 
and had led them from the wilderness of Judah to the Mount 
of Olives, promising that the walls of Jerusalem should fall 
down before their eyes as those of Jericho had done in ancient 
time, whereupon he would release the city from its heathen 
oppressors, and proclaim the Messianic kingdom. The gov- 
ernor, Felix, had dispersed his followers, after cutting down 
or capturing several hundred of them ; but the chief culprit 
had escaped. Lysias thought he had perhaps come back 
again and was making this disturbance. In any case he must 
put a stop to the tumult. 

When the Jews were aware of the captain's presence, they 
drew back for a moment and gave up striking Paul ; upon 
which Lysias instantly seized him, threw him into fetters and 
manacles, and inquired who he was and what he had done. 
But the tumult was far too great for him to hope for an intel- 
ligible answer. One shouted one thing, and another another, 
till Lysias commanded the prisoner to be conveyed to the 
barracks in Antonia. Meanwhile the mob pressed forward 
so furiously, shouting " Awa} 7 with him!" that when the} 7 
reached the steps of the castle the soldiers had literally to 
carry Paul. When he was inside the ramparts and was being 
conveyed to his prison, he said to the captain, " Can I have 
a word with you ? " " So ! " replied the other, ' ' do you un- 
derstand Greek ? I thought } t ou were the Egyptian Jew who 
made such a disturbance a short time back, and collected 
those four thousand bandits in the wilderness ! " Upon this 
Paul declared himself a Jewish citizen of Tarsus, and begged 
to be allowed to address the people. His request was gran- 
ted. He took his place at the top of the steps, demanded 
silence by a gesture, and when he had secured it addressed 
the people and their leaders in the language of the place, as 
follows: "Brothers and fathers! Listen to 1D3 7 defence." 
Now, when they heard that he was speaking in Hebrew they 
were more quiet yet ; and he began to tell them of his descent, 
of his bringing up at Jerusalem, of his rigidly Jewish educa- 
tion under Gamaliel, of his zeal for the religion of the fathers, 
and the details of his persecution of the Nazarenes. It was only 
the irresistible force of the appearance of Jesus near Damas- 
cus (here described in vivid colors) that had brought him to 



PAUL AT JERUSALEM. 



621 



himself; and it was Ananias, a man whose piety according 
to the Law had earned him the esteem of all his Jewish fel- 
low-citizens, who had told him to what he was called and had 
baptized him. Finally, when he had returned to Jerusalem, 
Jesus appeared to him in the temple and commanded him, 
in direct contradiction with his personal wishes, plans, and 
expectations, to quit the holy cit}~, where he would not be 
accepted, and go far away to the gentiles. 

The author has been very careful, in framing this address 
to the people, to make Paul lay stress on every point which 
could please the Jews, such as the way in which he had spent 
his early life, his zeal for the Law, and especially the person 
of Ananias. 1 Accordingly he tells us that the people listened 
attentivefy so far ; but as soon as they heard the word ' ' gen- 
tiles " their passion burst out again as fiercely as ever, and 
they shrieked : " Away with him ! He shall not live ! " and 
in their impotent fury tore their garments and flung dust into 
the air. Then the captain, who did not understand the lan- 
guage of the country, and therefore had not the least idea what 
it was all about, put an end to the scene by ordering Paul to 
be taken in and forced to a confession by scourging, in order 
that he might get at the cause of the people's fury. Paul was 
already bound to the stake and the executioners ready to 
scourge him, when he asked the officer in charge whether 
he had the right to scourge a Roman citizen, and one who 
had not been condemned. The officer went at once to the cap- 
tain and told him what Paul had said, so that he might know 
what he was doing. Then the captain came himself and asked 
Paul whether he really was a Roman. "Yes," he replied. 
u I bought the citizenship nryself for a great sum," said the 
captain. " But I was born to it," answered Paul. Of course 
the orders to scourge him were at once countermanded, and 
indeed the captain was under some uneasiness alread}', be- 
cause he had thrown a Roman citizen into chains without 
giving him a hearing. 

The next day, in order to learn with certainty what it was 
that the Jews laid to the charge of Paul, he had the Sanhe- 
drim called, and brought Paul before them without chains. 
The Apostle gazed steadfastly at the assembly and said : 
" Men and brothers ! I have walked before God with a clear 
conscience all my life." For these words the high priest, 
Ananias, son of Zebedeus, ordered the attendants to strike 
him on the mouth. That was too much for Paul's patience. 

i See pp. 523, 533. 



622 PAUL AT JERUSALEM. 

" Strike me ! God will strike you, you whited wall [hypo- 
crite]," he burst out. "Are you sitting there to give sen- 
tence according to the Law, and do you dare to order them 
to strike me in violation of the Law ? " " How dare you 
revile God's high priest? " cried the bystanders. Upon which 
Paul, unconditionally submissive to the Law as usual, re- 
plied : " Brothers ! had I known that he was the high priest 
I would never have transgressed the precept, ' Thou shalt not 
curse a leader of thy people.' " Then, knowing that one half 
of the council consisted of Sadducees and the other half of 
Pharisees, he cried aloud: "Men and brothers! I am a 
Pharisee, as my fathers were before me. It is concerning the 
Messianic hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am 
now upon my trial ! " These words caused an instant divi- 
sion between the two parties * and a great turmoil. Some 
of the Scribes rose up and asserted vehemently : "We can 
find no harm in the man. And what if a spirit or an angel 
really did speak to him at Damascus ? " The contest grew so 
violent that the captain began to be afraid they would tear 
Paul to pieces, and ordered the soldiers down to take him 
away to the castle. — This scene before the council is again 
entirely incredible. The self-righteous assertion with which 
Paul begins conflicts in more than one respect with his real 
sentiments. Besides, he could not have helped knowing that 
the president was the high priest, or at an}- rate some person 
in authoritj- ; and in any case the stjle of excuse put into his 
mouth is by no means such as he would really have adopted. 
Above all, he adroitly throws the apple of discord into the 
assembly by making an assertion which is true enough of the 
Paul of the Acts, but would have been a gross untruth, and 
therefore utterly impossible, on the lips of the historical Paul. 
Finally, the Pharisees were by no means so easy to take in 
as this stoiy would make it seem, and the whole affair is im- 
probability itself. The description is simply intended to 
make out that Paul's innocence was manifested even before 
the supreme Jewish court, and that the Pharisees themselves 
took his part, as Gamaliel had once done for Peter and the 
rest. 2 Afterwards the whole Sanhedrim is represented as 
hostile to him, which it really was. In a word, the author 
of the Acts has given us another of his fictions for the sake 
of displaying his Apostle as an unimpeachable Jew of the 
strictest school. 

The next night, he continues, Paul saw the Lord stand by 

l Compare pp. 378, 5, 6. 2 See pp. 497, 498. 



PAUL AT JERUSALEM. 623 

him, and say, u Be of good cheer ! As you have preached me 
at Jerusalem, so must }'Ou preach me at Rome also." But 
to all appearance the dangers still grew. The day after Paul's 
audience with the Sanhedrim, more than forty Jews bound 
themselves under a fearful oath neither to eat nor drink before 
the}' had slain him. They told the senators of their oath, and 
begged them to make an official request to the captain that 
Paul might be brought before the assembly again, in order 
that they might go into the affair more narrowly. While he 
was on his way to the hall the conspirators would kill him. 

By good luck however the son of Paul's sister heard of the 
murderous project, went to his uucle at the castle and revealed 
the plot to him. Thereupon Paul sent one of the officers to 
introduce his nephew to the captain, in his name, as the bearer 
of important news. The captain received him well, stepped 
aside with him, and asked him what it was. In reply the 
young man told him of the request the Sanhedrim would 
make in the morning, and of the plot it was meant to cover ; 
upon which the captain dismissed him with strict injunctions 
not to tell a soul of the information he had lodged with him. 
Then he called two centurions and told them to get ready two 
hundred heavy and two hundred light armed soldiers and 
sevent}' horsemen, besides the needful beasts of burden, to 
set out for Caesarea at nine o'clock in the evening, and con- 
vey Paul in safet} T to the governor, to whom meanwhile he 
himself prepared the following dispatch : — 

" Claudius Lysias to the great Governor Felix. Greeting ! 
This man was seized b} T the Jews and almost killed ; but, under- 
standing him to be a Roman, I hastened to the spot with the 
soldiers and rescued him. And, desiring to know of what the} T 
accused him, I brought him before their council, and found 
that the accusation referred to some question of their Law, but 
involved nothing punishable b}^ death or imprisonment. On 
hearing that an attack upon his person was contemplated, I 
have sent him without delay to you, at the same time instruct- 
ing his accusers to urge their complaints against him before 
you." 

The tribune's orders were strictly fulfilled. The infantry 
escorted Paul b} T night to Antipatris, about eleven leagues 
north-west of Jerusalem, beyond all danger of an attack from 
the Jews. Thence they returned on the following day to 
Antonia, leaving the cavalry the task of escorting the pris- 
oner further. The troop arrived at Caesarea, seven leagues 
further north, and Paul rode as a prisoner under armed escort 



624 paul's imprisonment and death. 

into the very city which he had left a few days before as a 
free man, surrounded by friends. 

The officer in charge gave 1/ysias's dispatch to the governor, 
and ushered Paul into his presence. Felix read the letter, 
asked from what province the prisoner came, was informed 
that it was Cilicia, announced his intention of examining him 
as soon as his accusers arrived, and put him in safe custody 
in the former palace of Herod the Great, which was now his 
own residence. 



Chapter XI. 

PAUL'S IMPRISONMENT AND DEATE 

Acts XXIV.-XXVIII. ; Philemon ; Philippians. 

WE are still without the authority of Titus, the eye- 
witness, whom we do not meet again till we come to 
Paul's departure for Rome. Meanwhile we have no guide 
but the writer of Acts, who lived much later, and modified or 
invented his history to suit the object he had in view. In 
the portion of his book that begins with Paul's arrival at 
Jerusalem and ends with his departure for Pome, his purpose 
is to make out thcit in every court, whether Jewish or heathen, 
and upon every occasion whatever, Paul was admitted and 
declared, by friend and foe alike, to be innocent of all the 
charges brought against him by his enemies ; 1 and further 
that the Roman authorities were very favorably disposed tow- 
ards him, and constantly shielded him against the unmerited 
hatred and the treacherous violence of the Jews. 

All this he describes at length, but omits every thing else, 
and passes over a period of two years in all but absolute 
silence. 2 The speeches he puts into the mouth of Paul, 
though modified according to the demands of the moment 
and the nature of the audience, are always intended to prove 
his scrupulous orthodoxy, and assure us that when seized 
he was in the very act of performing a meritorious religious 
rite. On the other hand, we are left in the dark as to the 
most essential feature of the trial, for we are never really 
told who Paul's accusers were or of what the} 7 accused him. 

When we further bear in mind that the discourses, conver- 
1 See pp. 615-617, 620. 2 Acts xxiv. 26, 27. 



Paul's imprisonment and death. 625 

sations, and dispatches which fill so large a portion of these 
chapters are all composed by the writer himself, and that the 
narratives in which the}' are set are by no means free from 
improbabilities, we shall feel that very little is left as history. 
Indeed, we can accept nothing with confidence except the 
bare facts that Paul became involved with the Jewish and 
Roman authorities, and was made a prisoner at Jerusalem, 
was held two j*ears in captivity at Caesarea, and then, after a 
disastrous vo}'age, at least two }-ears in Rome. Even these 
facts we should not always feel at liberty to accept were it not 
that they contradict rather than support the special intention 
of the author, and therefore cannot have been invented by 
him. The}' doubtless formed the kernel of the universally 
accepted tradition concerning Paul, whose name, for good or 
ill, was in everybody's mouth. Moreover they are supported 
by the testimon}- of the eye-witness, for he tells us of Paul's 
arrival at Jerusalem and his departure as a prisoner for 
Rome. Uncertain as all the details are, we have nothing to 
add to or substitute for them, except of course in the case of 
the Roman magistrates mentioned, for they are known to 
histoiy. We shall therefore give the narrative as it stands 
in Acts, with the reservations already made. 

Felix, who had now been governor of Palestine for seven 
years, has a black mark set to his name in history. A freed 
man and favorite of the Emperor Claudius, he "wielded 
the authority of a prince with the soul of a slave," addicting 
himself to every conceivable cruelty and excess. His third 
wife, a queen like the other two, was the fair Drusilla, sis- 
ter of Agrippa II., who had deserted her husband, the king 
of Emesa, at the instance of Felix. Such was the judge who 
had now to decide Paul's fate. 

The Apostle was not deserted at Caesarea by his fellow- 
deputies and other friends. No sooner had the}^ heard 
where he had been taken than they hastened after him. 1 
But neither did his enemies lose sight of him. Within five 
days all was ready for the trial. A deputation from the 
Sanhedrim, headed by the high priest, appeared against Paul 
before the judgment seat, and their case was conducted by 
a certain Tertullus, whom they had brought as their orator 
or counsel. This man endeavored to win the procurator's 
favor by covering him with false adulation, and then (to cut 
a long tale short, as he said) denounced Paul as a pestilent 

1 Acts xxiv. 23. 
vol. in. 27 



626 paul's imprisonment and death. 

fellow who raised tumults among the Jews all over the world ; 
a ringleader of the sect of Nazarenes, who had recently gone 
the length of actually desecrating the temple ; and who could 
not deny a single one of the charges they brought against 
him. 

The members of the Sanhedrim likewise vented their ha- 
tred against Paul and confirmed all that Tertullus had said. 
Then Felix gave Paul leave to speak ; and he began, in cour- 
teous but dignified language, to explain that it was only 
twelve days since he had entered the holy city to worship, 
and that he had delivered no address in the temple, or made 
any tumult in the synagogue or in the city. In a word, the 
whole accusation was a forgery. He freely confessed to being 
a Nazarene. But what did that mean ? Not a sectary, as 
they libellously asserted, but one who served the God of the 
fathers, firmly believing all that was written in the Law and 
the Prophets, and hoping in God as the^y themselves did 
that there would be a resurrection of the dead to blessedness 
and to misery. And because of this hope he always strove 
to keep his conscience free from offences against God or man. 
Now what were the real facts? After an absence of many 
years he had come to bring gifts of love to his people and 
offerings to God. This brought him into the temple, in com- 
pliance with all the Levitical precepts, but without any such 
tumultuous concourse as they asserted ; and there certain 
Asiatic Jews encountered him, whose conspicuous absence on 
the present occasion showed that the}^ had not really any 
charge to bring against him. Nor could his present accusers 
charge him with any offence when before the council, except 
that he had cried out, w ' It is for my hope of the resurrection 
that I am being tried ! " 

Felix was now abreast of the question, but he deferred 
giving any decision under pretext of awaiting the arrival 
of Lysias, the chief witness ; meanwhile he gave orders that 
Paul's confinement should be made as easy as possible, and 
that his friends should be allowed to perform any services for 
him that they could. A short time afterward the procurator 
summoned Paul to come before himself and his wife Drusilla. 
who was a Jewess, and who would therefore understand the 
matter. He listened to his exposition of the faith in Christ, 
out when he spoke of justice, temperance, and the judgment 
to come, the t}^rant and adulterer trembled, and exclaimed : 
' ' That is enough for to-day ! I will send for you again when 
X have leisure." At the same time he hoped that his prisoner 



Paul's imprisonment and death. 627 

night be ransomed, and therefore sent for him and conversed 
with him frequently. This went on for two years, and then 
Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and left Paul in 
prison to please the Jews. 

Now Festus was a ver} 7 different man from his prede- 
cessor, and ruled with justice and moderation ; but the pre- 
vious course of the trial was repeated with little change under 
him also. Within three days of his arrival and installation 
as procurator he departed for the capital of Judaea, where the 
members of the Sanhedrim laid their charges against Paul 
before him, and begged him as a favor to send the prisoner 
up to Jerusalem, with the treacherous design of murdering 
him upon the way. But Festus refused. He was himself 
going to Caesarea in a few days, he said, and since the pri- 
soner was in keeping there the Jew r ish authorities must go 
there too, and if the} 7 had any charges to make must make 
them there. 

This they did. After a sta} T of only eight or ten days the 
procurator returned to Caesarea, and the very morning after 
his arrival the trial took place. Paul was brought in, and 
the Jews of Jerusalem appeared against him, and made a 
number of heavy charges against him, none of which they 
could substantiate. The Apostle, on his side, declared that 
he had committed no offence against the law of the Jews, 
against the temple, or against the Emperor. Festus, in order 
to gratif}' the Jews, now asked : " Are you willing to go up 
to Jerusalem and receive my sentence there?" But Paul, 
perceiving the full danger of such a proposal, rejected it de- 
cisively. He was now standing before an Imperial Roman 
court, and insisted on his right of refusing to appear before 
any other. Besides, he had committed no offence against 
the Jews, as the procurator well knew, and the} T had there- 
fore no claim upon him whatever. " If I am a malefactor, 
guihVy of any capital offence, I have nothing to urge against 
the sentence of death. But since there is not a word of 
truth in their accusations, no one has power to surrender me 
to them. I appeal to Caesar ! " A Roman citizen, resident 
in a province, had the right of appeal to the imperial court at 
Rome if he thought he had been arbitrarily treated, misused, 
or unlawfully sentenced by the provincial authorities. So 
this unexpected appeal put an instant close to the proceed- 
ings, much to the dismay of the accusers. The court rose 
for a moment, and Festus deliberated with his assessors, ac- 
cording to rule, as to the validity of the appeal. There wan 



628 Paul's imprisonment and death. 

nothing in the nature of the accusation or the conditions ot 
Paul's citizenship to invalidate it ; and when the court re- 
sumed, the procurator gave his decision thus: "You have 
appealed to Caesar. You shall go to him." 

A few days afterwards Herod Agrippa II., king of certain 
districts north and north-east of Galilee, who was also governor 
of the Temple at Jerusalem, and had the high priesthood in 
his gift, arrived at Csesarea with his sister Bernice, the widow 
of the late King Herod of Chalcis, who was sta3'mg with him. 
They came to pay their court to Festus, and remained with 
him some time. Festus took occasion to mention the case of 
Paul to the Jewish king, as to one who was admirably fitted 
to judge of it. He told him how this prisoner had been left 
by his predecessor, how the council at Jerusalem had de- 
manded his condemnation, and how he had informed them 
that the Romans were not in the habit of surrendering a man 
to punishment before he had had the opportunity of meeting 
his accusers and defending himself. He had lost no time in 
looking into the matter, and had discovered that it was not a 
question of any political or civil offence, but of certain points 
of Jewish controversy, and especially of Paul's assertion that 
a certain Jesus who had died long ago was still alive. At a 
loss how to deal with the matter, he had asked the prisoner 
whether he would have his case investigated at Jerusalem, 
but he had answered by appealing to the supreme court, and 
was now being held, according to his wish, in readiness to be 
sent to the Emperor on the first opportunit}^. Agrippa an- 
swered courteously that he should be glad to hear this man 
himself. " To-morrow morning, then," replied Festus. 

On the following day the audience hall presented an impos- 
ing spectacle. On the seat of honor sat the noble and ex- 
alted Roman. Beside him were his royal guests in all their 
pomp and splendor, as well as the military officers and the dis- 
tinguished men of Csesarea. Festus ordered Paul into his pres- 
ence, and when he arrived began the proceedings as follows : 

"Be it known to King Agrippa and to all here present that 
this is the man whom the whole bodj' of Jews, both here and 
at Jerusalem, have denounced to me with the utmost violence 
as unworthy to live. But I could not discover the smallest 
ground for a sentence of death, and have determined to ac- 
cept his appeal to the Emperor. Meanwhile I cannot put the 
indictment against him into any intelligible form for the Em- 
peror's information, and that is wiry I have called him before 
this assembly, and especially before you, King Agrippa, in 



Paul's imprisonment and death. 629 

order that when you have heard him } t ou may be able to 
advise me what to write. For it seems monstrous to send a 
prisoner to Rome without saying what he is accused of." 

Then Agrippa turned to the prisoner and said : " You are 
permitted to speak." 

Paul extended his hand impressively and began. He es- 
teemed himself fortunate in being allowed to answer the accu- 
sations brought against him in the presence of King Agrippa, 
who was well acquainted with all the duties and all the con- 
troversies of the Jewish religion, and whose kind attention he 
now besought. All the Jews knew what his life had been 
from his youth up, and how he had lived as a Pharisee of the 
strictest religious school ; and even now the sole charge 
against him was his hope in the Messianic kingdom, promised 
by God to the fathers, and expected with devoutest zeal by 
all the nation. And what was the ground of the charge? 
Could any thing be judged incredible now that God had raised 
one from the dead? 1 He, Paul, had himself been a violent 
persecutor of the followers of Jesus — • as he proceeded to 
show in detail — until the risen one appeared to him in glory 
near Damascus, addressed many words to him, and sent him 
out as his chosen witness before Jew and gentile. In obe- 
dience to his behest he had preached repentance at Damascus, 
at Jerusalem, throughout Judaea, and to the heathen also ; 
and that was why the Jews had seized him in the temple and 
attempted to destroy him. But by God's help he was still 
preachiug to small and great, never going beyond what Moses 
and the prophets had predicted concerning the calling of the 
Christ, who must first suffer and then, as the first-fruits of 
the resurrection, cause truth and righteousness to be pro- 
claimed to the people of God and to the heathen. 

At this point the discourse is broken short, as we shall 
presently see. The author has entirely omitted all reference 
to the real accusation ; and on this occasion, in going over the 
history of Paul's previous life, of his conversion, and his sub- 
sequent labors, he throws his mission to the gentiles quite into 
the background, puts his Jewish orthodoxy prominently for- 
ward, and brings his apostolic career into the closest connection 
with the Jewish beliefs in the resurrection and the Messiah. 
All this is in order to show how undeserved and unreasonable 
were the hatred and persecution of the Jews. We are in- 
formed accordingly that the impression made upon the Jewish 
king was eminently favorable ; but when the heathen Festus 
1 After an amended version of Acts xxvi. 8 ; compare pp. 527, 528. 



630 PAIL S IMPRISONMENT AND DEATH. 

heard Paul speak once more of the resurrection, 1 be cried 
aloud: "Paul, you are raving ! Your great learning has 
made jon mad." " No, great Festus ! " said the Apostle with 
quiet dignity, " I am not raving, but am uttering words of 
truth and reason. The king understands all these matters 
thorough^, and I can therefore speak to him freely ; for I am 
confident that none of these things are unknown to him, for 
the suffering and resurrection of the Christ took place in no 
remote corner of the earth. King Agrippa ! do } T ou believe 
the prophets? I know you do." "You would find it no 
hard task to make me a Christian myself," said the king in 
answer to his appeal. " Would to God," exclaimed Paul, 
" that whether I found it hard or eas} T , not only you but all 
who are here present might be brought to the state that I am 
in, — except for these chains ! " 

Then the king, the procurator, Bernlce, and all the grandees 
rose from their seats and withdrew. There was but one 
opinion : ' ' This man has done nothing to deserve death or 
imprisonment." In fact Agrippa said to Festus: "If he 
had not appealed to the Emperor he might have been set at 
liberty." 

The Apostle's innocence was fully recognized by competent 
judges, and could never again be attacked or questioned. 

When the journey to Italy was decided on, in the autumn 
of 61 a.d., Paul and several other prisoners were handed over 
to a certain Julius, a centurion of the imperial cohort. The 
Apostle was again accompanied by two of his eight former 
companions, — namely, Aristarchus of Thessalonica and the 
author of the diary upon whose narrative we now come once 
more. It is probably introduced in this place by the author 
of Acts because of the great interest he attaches to Paul's 
journey to the capital of the world. 2 

There did not happen to be a ship bound for Rome at 
Csesarea, so they embarked on a merchantman which was go- 
ing to touch at several Asiatic ports on her way to Adramyt- 
tium, in Mysia. In one place or another they would be sure 
to find means of transport to Italy. On the second day they 
reached Sidon [and Julius, who treated Paul with great 
courtes}', allowed him to visit his friends and enjoy their hos- 
pitable care]. Loosing from Sidon they were hindered by 
adverse winds from making the coast of Lycia direct, and 
therefore sailed round between Cyprus and the mainland, 
1 Compare pp. 569, 570. 2 See pp. 562, 563. 



Paul's imprisonment and death 631 

through the Cilician sea and the Pampliylian gulf, to the sea- 
port Myra. Here the centurion found an Alexandrian ship 
on the point of sailing for I f aly, and embarked his passengers 
on her. Altogether there were two hundred and seventy- 
six persons on board. 

They made such little way that after many days they had 
barely come over against the Carian peninsula Cnidus. Here 
the wind compelled them to bear down upon Crete by Cape 
Salmone, which they had difficulty in rounding, after which 
they reached the bay of Fair Havens on the southern coast 
of the island, near the city of Lasea. They had already 
been long on the voyage and the season was advanced ; for 
the great da}' of atonement 1 was already past, so that it must 
have been about the first of October. Paul's experience led 
him to anticipate danger, and he said: " My friends, I see 
that if we make this voyage it will be with great loss, not 
only to the ship and cargo, but to our own lives." In vain. 
The centurion paid more attention to the helmsman and the 
captain than to Paul ; and since the haven they were now in 
offered no sufficient accommodation for the winter, the general 
feeling was in favor of attempting to reach the city of Phcenix, 
the harbor of which opened westward. A gentle wind from 
the south assured them that the}* would accomplish their pur- 
pose ; so they loosed anchor, but hugged the shore of Crete. 

Soon afterwards a furious wind from the north-east bore 
down upon the ship from the mountain-land behind, and 
swept her helplessly before it. There was nothing for it but 
to let her drive ; and as they ran under the little island of 
Clauda they barely succeeded in saving the ship's boat from 
being swept away by the storm. Then they undergirded the 
vessel, as it is called ; that is to say the}' passed cables under- 
neath her and drew them tight, so as to hold her together. 
In dread of being cast upon the great Syrtis, with its rocks 
and shallows, they now furled all the sails, made fast the rud- 
derbands, and let the ship drive again. The next day they 
were so hard pressed that they had to lighten the ship of her 
cargo, and the day after that the passengers and crew threw 
out the very tackle with their own hands. Day after day the 
storm raged on with unabated fury, and they could see neither 
sun nor stars, and lost all hope of saving their lives. The 
mariner's compass of course was not invented in those days, 
and they had no means of knowing so much as in what direc- 
tion they were drifting. 

[Xow when their despair and terror had long kept them 
i See vol. ii. p. 512 



632 paut/s imprisonment and death. 

fasting, Paul went to them and said: "You ought to have 
listened to me and not loosed from Crete, and then you would 
have escaped all this. But now I would have }*ou take cour- 
age, for not one of you will perish, only the ship will be lost. 
In the night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I 
worship stood by me and said : ' Paul ! you have no risk of 
death to fear. You must yet appear before the Emperor ; 
and for } T our sake God will spare all your fellow-passengers.' 
So pluck up heart, my friends, for I trust in my God that it 
will all come to pass as the angel said. But we shall be cast 
upon some island."] 

It was fourteen days since they had left Fair Havens and 
begun driving about in the Ionian Sea, when the sailors, sus- 
pecting that land was near, sounded, and read twent} 7 and 
soon afterwards fifteen fathoms, or ninet} 7 feet ; upon which 
they threw out four anchors from the stern, for fear of strik- 
ing upon rocks. But as they were waiting and longing for 
the dawn the sailors contrived a treacherous plan, which 
Paul fortunately discovered and frustrated. They determined 
to escape alone in the boat, and leave the passengers to their 
fate. They were already letting down the boat, on pretext 
of putting out anchors from the prow, when Paul warned the 
centurion and his men of the danger: " If the crew deserts 
us you are all undone ! " The soldiers, who were accustomed 
to the promptness of military measures, made short work of 
it by cutting the ropes and letting the boat go. [Towards 
daybreak Paul exhorted them all to take food, for they had 
been in such terror for their lives during the last fortnight 
that they had eaten nothing. The} 7 had better refresh them- 
selves now and be ready to save themselves, for not a hair 
• of their heads should be hurt. With these words Paul took 
some bread, uttered the blessing aloud, broke, and began to 
eat. Then they all imitated his example and were greatly 
relievecl.] The last rations were served out, every one eating 
as much as he chose, and then they further lightened the ship 
b} T throwing out all the provisions, of which there must have 
been considerable stores, for the passengers were numerous. 
Now when da} 7 broke they could not recognize the land 
but they saw a creek with a shelving coast, and determined if 
possible to bring the ship into it. So the} 7 took up the an- 
chors, loosed the rudderbands, hoisted the top-sail to the wind, 
and made for the coast. But they struck upon a bank and 
were stranded. The vessel's prow was fixed immovably, and 
the waves dashed her stern to pieces. 



Paul's imprisonment and death. 633 

The soldiers suggested killing the prisoners, for fear some 
of them should swim off and escape ; but the centurion [who 
was anxious to save Paul] would not allow it, but commanded 
those that could swim to throw themselves in first and make 
for the land, after which the rest must save themselves as best 
the} T might on planks and spars. Thus they all came safe to 
land. The supposed spot at which they landed, on the north- 
east-coast of the island of Malta, is still known as St. Paul's 
Bay. 

This narrative of the vo} T age and shipwreck bears unmis- 
takable signs, apart from the use of the first person, of com- 
ing from an eye-witness. The passages included in brackets, 
however, maj* be removed without breaking the connection ; 
they betray a different style from that of Titus, are often in 
contradiction with his narrative in general or with some of its 
details, and are alwa} T s in perfect harmon}^ with the purpose 
of Acts, which would be enough in itself to make us suspect 
them. Moreover the} T are intrinsically improbable. 

It was not long before the} r discovered that they were on 
the island of Melita. They were received with the great- 
est kindness by the inhabitants, who were Carthaginians b} T 
descent. The} T lighted a fire for them and took them all 
in to protect them from the furious rain and the cold. 
Now when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and thrown 
them upon the fire, an adder darted out, when it felt the 
heat, and fastened upon his hand. When the people of 
the place saw the creature hanging on his hand the} T said to 
each other : " Surely this man must be some murderer whom 
Dike (the goddess of justice) cannot suffer to five, even though 
he has escaped from the sea." But Paul shook off the adder 
into the fire and suffered no harm. The}' all expected him 
to swell up or suddenly fall down dead ; but after a good 
while, when they saw that nothing happened to him, they 
completely changed their opinion and held him for a god. 
Now the governor of the island, a certain Publius, had an 
estate in the neighborhood, where he hospitably entertained 
Paul and his friends for three days ; and in return the Apostle 
cured his father, who w r as in bed with fever and ctysentery, by 
praying and laying his hands upon him. After this the other 
sick people in the island came and were healed ; upon which 
they overwhelmed the three friends with tokens of honor, 
and when they departed, three months afterwards, gave them 
every thing they could require. 

We suspect that this account of the stay at Malta was not 

27* 



634 paul's imprisonment and death. 

written as it stands by Titus, but was modified and above 
all greatly shortened by the writer of the Acts. Surely 
Paul's companion must have recorded what took place after 
the first three days, and where they stayed during the three 
months they spent on the island after leaving Publius. He 
must also have had something to tell us of the winter's 
doings, for we may be sure that Paul was not sitting idle all 
the time. Even the stories about the first two days w r ere 
probably not recorded by Titus as we now have them. At 
any rate they raise our suspicion on several grounds. For 
instance, if the people came to regard Paul as a god, we might 
fairly expect to hear how the} T showed their belief and how 
Paul corrected them. At an} T rate, if the stor} 7 is not an in- 
vention by the author of Acts, suggested by reminiscences of 
Lystra, we must suppose that it is broken off in the middle. 
So again the cure of all the sick people in the island, recorded 
in such a summary style, reminds us of a special characteristic 
of the writer of Acts, and is doubtless his addition. 1 

The spring had now arrived, says Titus, and with it came 
an opportimit} r of sailing for Rome. An Alexandrian 
vessel, the " Castor and Pollux," had wintered at the island 
and now took our travellers on board. First the} 7 sailed to 
Syracuse, where the} 7 spent three days ; then the} 7 coasted 
along the east of Sicily and the southern extremity of Italy, 
where the} T reached Rhegium, and were then carried by a south 
wind in less than two days to Puteoli, near Naples. Here 
their voj'age was at an end and the} T took a week's rest. Our 
travellers found some Christians there, and received from them 
the refreshing sympathy they so much needed as they drew 
near to Rome, equally uncertain of what awaited them from 
the judicial authorities and from the Christians. Then they 
went along the famous Appian Way, through the plain of Cam- 
pagna and the Pontine Marshes, to the capital of the world. 

The news of their arrival on Italian soil had gone before 
them, and a band of Christians had come to meet them at 
Appii Forum, a notorious place about thirty-nine and a half 
miles from Rome ; others met them at the Three Taverns, 
a baiting place some nine miles further north, — all which 
restored the Apostle's courage, and he thanked God. The 
place of their destination was now soon reached. 

So Paul was at last in Rome, though under very different 
circumstances from those he had anticipated. 2 Prisoner as 
he was, he still found some opportunities of work. Accord' 

» See pp. 472, 539, 540, 494, 496. 2 See p. 605. 



haul's imprisonment and death. 635 

ing to an old account, 1 the prisoners were at once conducted 
to the barracks of the imperial guard (the Pretorians) at the 
other end of the citj', and given in charge to their com- 
mander, — who was the celebrated Burrhus, Nero's tutor and 
good genius, but soon to be his victim. This is very credible. 
The Apostle, we are further informed, obtained leave to live in 
his own lodgings with the soldier who had charge of him and 
to whom he was chained by the arm, provided of course that 
these lodgings were within the barracks or their immediate 
neighborhood. He was even allowed to go out with the 
soldier. He could receive visits and write letters. In short 
he enjo}ed an amount of freedom which enabled him still to 
do something towards accomplishing the task of his life. 

But what was his reception by the Christians at Rome ? 
Much depended upon this, not only with respect to the alle- 
viations of his personal lot, but with regard to the abundance 
of his opportunities of labor and the prospects of their bear- 
ing fruit. What impression had his letter made two 3 T ears 
before ? We have just heard that some of the brethren came 
to meet him ; but we knew already from his own epistle that 
there were some who sjmipathized with him at Rome, and 
the letter itself can hardly have failed to do something, at 
least, towards attaching others to his person and his gospel. 
But what about the community as a whole, or the Jewish- 
Christian majority, which joined the great Jewish population 
of the capital in its detestation of the Roman government, 
which observed the Sabbath and the Jewish feasts, and some 
members of which abstained, in Essenic piet} r , from all 
animal food ? 2 We find no answer to this question in the 
book of Acts. At Rome the author breaks off the diary of 
Paul's companion, just as he did before at Jerusalem, and 
even seems to have greatty abbreviated the record of the 
meetings at Puteoli, at Appii Forum, and the Three Taverns. 
Hardly any of the remaining statements in Acts deserve 
credit. 

Within three days of his arrival, we are told, Paul sum- 
moned the heads or leaders of the Roman Jews, and set forth 
how he had been seized at Jerusalem and handed over to the 
Roman governor at Csesarea, without having committed any 
offence against his people or against the customs of the 
fathers. The governor had looked into the matter and had 

1 Acts xxviii. 16. (In the "Authorized Version," but not in the oldest man- 
uscripts. ) 

2 See pp. 606, 608, 545. 



636 Paul's imprisonment and death. 

wished to set him at liberty, but the opposition of the Jews 
ran so high that he (Paul) had felt constrained to appeal to 
the Emperor, though he had not the least intention of lodging 
any complaint against his people. All this had made him 
wish to see and speak with them, for he wore his chains in the 
cause of Israel's Messianic expectation. The Jews answered 
that they had received no letters about him from Judaea, and 
had never heard an} 7 ill of him by word of mouth ; but 
they desired to hear what he had to say, for all they knew 
about this sect of the Nazarenes was that it was everywhere 
spoken against. So a day was fixed, and they came in 
great numbers to his dwelling, where he clearly and power- 
fully preached the kingdom of God and demonstrated the 
Messianic dignity of Jesus out of the Law and the Prophets 
from morning till evening. Some of his hearers w r ere con- 
vinced, but others remained unbelieving. They departed 
therefore contending with each other, while Paul reminded 
them of that cheerless saying of Isaiah's about the impeni- 
tence of Israel, 1 and exclaimed: "Know then that this 
divine salvation is now offered to the gentiles, and that they 
will receive it." And so it was. For two whole years Paul 
remained in his own dwelling and received all who came to 
him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching them about 
the Lord Jesus Christ, boldly and without hindrance. 

Observe that in this narrative Paul's communications with 
the Christian community and the relations in which he stood 
to it are studiously passed over, and an interview with the 
Jews is substituted, although really the Apostle had nothing 
at all to do with them. The description of the meeting itself 
is full of impossibilities. These Jews have never heard any 
thing about Paul, good or bad, by writing or by word of 
mouth ! What is more, the} 7 know nothing about the Naza- 
renes except that they are spoken against ! The writer 
forgets that only a few lines back he has spoken of Roman 
believers. Finally, in express contradiction of the Apostle's 
own declaration in his letter that he was coming to Rome 
especially for the gentiles, we are once more told, amid re- 
peated assertions of his orthodox} 7 , that he turned first to the 
Jews, and only felt at liberty to go to the heathen when the 
Jews had manifested their want of faith. Thenceforth he 
preached to the gentiles under the friendly protection of the 
Roman authorities. 

Thus the only statement which we can accept is the con 

l See vol. ii. p. 249; and p. 143. 



paul's imprisonment and death. 637 

eluding one, that Paul spent at least two years in Rome as a 
prisoner, but was not altogether deprived of the opportunity 
of preaching the gospel. For the rest, the author does not 
give us a single detail concerning all this period. Now that 
he has brought Paul to Rome and seen him preach Christian- 
ity under the protection of the State, his book is completed. 
We must therefore look round for other sources of informa- 
tion: Our author's silence as to the relations between the 
Apostle and the Christian community at Rome gives grounds 
for unfavorable surmises, which find confirmation elsewhere ; 
for we still possess three short letters which are attributed 
with more or less probability to Paul, and which, if really his, 
must have been written during his Roman imprisonment. 

The most doubtful of the three is a short note to Timothy, 
supposed to be preserved in our Second of Timothy, 1 which 
is certainly not authentic as a whole. We mention it with 
the less hesitation because, even if not from the Apostle's 
own hand, it may very well contain a few historical reminis- 
cences nevertheless. Here Paul complains that no one had 
been with him to support him at his first trial ; but though 
all had deserted him, jet the Lord had helped him and 
strengthened him, that he might finish his task and preach 
to all the heathen. Thus had he been saved from the jaws 
of death. He mentions particularly that a certain Alexander, 
a coppersmith, had treated him with great hostiht} T , and that 
all those of Asia had turned away from him. The Ephesian 
Onesiphorus was a pleasing exception. He had previously 
done great service to the good cause in his native city, and 
had recently searched for Paul in Rome until he found him, 
had not been ashamed of associating with a prisoner, and 
had often refreshed his heart. At the moment of writing 
the Apostle was bereft of the societ}' of all his friends except 
Luke, and he therefore urgently begged Timothy to come to 
him as quickly as possible and bring Mark with him. 

The second of the letters we spoke of is probably authentic. 
It is the little note to Philemon, whom we know already as a 
fellow-worker of Paul, and one whom he himself had brought 
to the faith. 2 Now one of this man's slaves was a certain One- 
simus, who had robbed or otherwise injured his master, and 
then run awa} T for fear of punishment. He had come into ac- 
cidental contact with Paul at Rome, and had been converted 
to Christianity. The Apostle had conceived a sincere affec- 
ticra for him, and had found him so serviceable that he would 

i 2 Timothy i. 1, 2, 15-18, iv. 9-18. 
2 Philemon verse 19 ; compare p. 590. 



638 haul's imprisonment and death. 

gladly have kept him at his side. But nevertheless he deter- 
mined to do without him, and persuaded him to return to his 
master, whose property he still remained ; but for fear of 
his being heavily punished he gave him this letter to take 
with him. 

It is addressed to Philemon and also to Appia and 
Archippus, probably his wife and son, and the congregation 
that usually met at his house. Paul leaves no means untried 
to secure pardon for Onesimus. He adopts the most winning 
tone, reminds Philemon of his advanced age and his impris- 
onment for the gospel's sake, speaks of Onesimus as hence- 
forth less a slave than a brother, tries every means of plead- 
ing for him and commending him to his master's forgiveness. 
He playfully draws out a formal order to Philemon to settle 
the slave's debts from his (Paul's) account, reminds Philemon 
how much he owes him, and expresses his hope of a speed} 7 
release, when he will visit Colossse and sta} r with him. 

We value this short letter, not only because of the inter- 
esting and characteristic circumstance which it records, and 
the testimoiry it bears to Paul's personal influence, even on a 
runaway slave, and his tact in pressing a delicate point, but 
also because it shows us that at this moment he had some 
prospect of being released, and intended when free to go to 
Asia Minor. Moreover the greeting shows us that the Co- 
lossian Epaphras, whom we know alreaclv, shared the Apos- 
tle's captivit}', and that Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke 
were with him, besides Timothy, in whose name, as well as 
his own, he sends the letter. 

The epistle to the Philippians yields a richer harvest. If, as 
we have supposed, it is realty from the Apostle's hand, it must 
have been written and sent off when he had already been in 
Rome some time, perhaps at the end of 63 a. d. A short time 
before he had experienced a great delight. A former fellow- 
laborer and fellow-soldier, Epaphroditus, a Philippian, had 
searched him out at Rome, and had brought him a present in 
money, which must have been exceedingly welcome, in the 
name of the believers of Philippi. Anxious days had fol- 
lowed, for Epaphroditus fell dangerously ill. When he re- 
covered he longed to return home, especially since his friends 
were uneasy about him. So Paul sent him on his waj r , with 
hearty gratitude, and gave him this letter to the Philippians, in 
the greeting of which the name of Timothy again appears. 

We learn from the contents that the Apostle's imprisonment 
was not without fruits for the gospel. The imperial body- 



Paul's imprisonment and death. 639 

guard and others with whom he was thrown into contact gave 
him their attention ; and, what was more, man}?- of the Roman 
Christians were encouraged by his example to preach the Christ 
boldly, though with veiy diverse motives, — for while some 
were actuated by love and esteem for him, others (Jewish- 
Christians) cherished the hostile design of aggravating the 
trials of his present lot. But in any case Christ was being 
preached, and that was his greatest joj T and blessing. 

We are further given to understand that he had drawn 
together a band of believers, whose greetings he sends, and 
had even won certain members of the Emperor's household, 
probably subordinate officials or servants, for the gospel. But 
meanwhile he could not rely upon all his fellow-workers ; for 
when he announces his intention of sending Timothy to the 
Philippians, in hopes of receiving good news of them, as soon 
as he can foresee with certaint}^ the result of his trial, he 
adds that he has no one else with him so faithful to him 
and so sure to regard their interests as Timothy. All the 
rest were selfish, but the Philippians knew Timothy of old. 

Paul also relied upon going to Philippi himself. But his 
mood and his personal expectations constantly change as he 
writes. At one moment he expects a martyr's death to crown 
the work of his life, which he himself would wish, for then he 
would be taken straight to Christ as one who had died for 
him. 1 But generally he feels no doubt that he will be re- 
leased, perhaps speedily, and will continue to work perhaps 
till the return of the Lord ; for this would be best for the 
communit}'. In any case the result, whether life or death, 
will be to the glory of the Christ. 

Throughout this letter, addressed more especially to the 
overseers and deacons of the community, we are struck by 
the warmth of tone and the intimate relations which had sub- 
sisted from the first between the Apostle and the Philippian 
converts. The latter, as we know already, had shown a gen- 
erosit} T even beyond their means on occasion of the collection 
for Jerusalem, had twice sent sums of money to the Apostle 
more than ten yeara ago, and now came to his assistance 
again. Paul on his side made an exception in their favor to 
his otherwise universal rule of accepting no subsidies from 
his converts. In many respects the Philippians gave him 
cause to rejoice ; and they were now suffering oppression for 
the faith as he was himself. We notice, especially in the 
early portion of the epistle, that Paul has learned to separate 
1 Compare p. 333. 



640 paul's imprisonment and death. 

his own person from the cause of the gospel, and has become 
genuinely tolerant towards the opponents who pursued him 
with relentless hatred even to Rome. But in the two con- 
cluding chapters he falls into the old tone, denounces them 
more bitterly than ever as " dogs, evil workers, mutilated." 
In answer to their Jewish arrogance he once more enumerates 
the legal privileges which he had cast under his feet for 
Christ's sake, 1 and calls them enemies of the cross. He em- 
phatically warns the Philippians against them and against all 
sectarian animoshYy, exhorts Euoclia and Syntyche by name 
and the community in general to unanimity, humility, and 
self-denying love, after the example of Christ, who had relin- 
quished his heavenl}' glory, and had been obedient even to 
the death upon the cross. 

" Be blameless and upright, unpolluted children of God, 
in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among 
whom j^ou appear like lights of heaven in the world ! " 2 Paul 
had good reason to utter such words as these to the Philip- 
pians, for if he saw or heard any thing of what was going on 
at Rome, its foul iniquity must have sent a sickening shudder 
through his heart, and made him more certain than ever that 
the Lord was near at hand and that the world hastened to its 
close. Such a wild outburst of shameless infamy as took 
place in 62 a.d. and the following years, under Nero's rule, 
the world has never witnessed before or since. We suspect 
that the Apostle himself was one of its victims. 

We suspect it, but we cannot be certain. Since the book 
of Acts breaks off abruptly after mentioning that Paul re- 
mained two years in Rome, it follows that after this period 
some change in his lot took place. Why is there not a word 
about his subsequent fate, whether release and renewed ac- 
tivity or the death of a martyr? A later tradition, founded 
on what was known or reported of Paul's own plans and ex- 
pectations, 3 says that he was set at liberty, that he carried 
out his original projects, was then taken prisoner again, and 
perished in Rome by the hand of the executioner in the year 
67 a.d. The legend adds that it was on June 29, and that 
Peter was his fellow- victim, Paul being beheaded and Peter 
crucified with his head downwards. But all this is groundless 
speculation. There is no trace of the Apostle's life or preach- 
ing after the period to which we have already brought them ; 
and the detestation with which the Christians were regarded 

l See p. 520. ' 2 Philippians ii. 15. s See pp. 605, 638, 639. 



paul's imprisonment and death. 641 

just at that moment in Rome makes it highly improbable that 
Paul should have been released. We have every reason to 
suppose that he perished amid the horrors of the summer of 
64 a.d. But why does the author of Acts tell us nothing? 
Wiry does he simply drop his hero, as he has previously 
dropped Peter and Barnabas ? There is not the smallest in- 
dication that he intended to complete his task in another 
work*, and even if there were we should still have to ask why 
he broke off just here. Is it possible that his anxiety to hold 
the balance between Peter and Paul induced him to say noth- 
ing of the latter's crown of mailyrdom, because tradition had 
not as yet woven the similar crown with which it afterwards 1 
girt the brow of Peter ? Or did he stop at this point because 
he had completed his design of portraying the spread of the 
gospel from Jerusalem to Rome, and because the constant 
burden of his narrative had been the friendly reception and 
protection which Paul had received at the hands of the Roman 
magistracy, so that he shrank from destixrying the impression 
b}' touching on the fierce contrast of that dismal close, in the 
horrors of Nero's persecution, in which the Apostle disap- 
peared ? 

Enough! On July 19, 64 a.d., a fire broke out at Rome 
and made unheard-of ravages. It spread with incredible ra- 
pidity, and nothing could check its fur}\ It was not till the 
sixth da}' that it seemed to be got under, and it soon broke 
out again and raged for three days more. Of the fourteen 
districts of the huge capital but four remained. In seven the 
fire had left charred and blackened walls alone, and the other 
three were heaps of smoking ruins ! The maddened populace 
believed that the Emperor had kindled the flames ; and he 
was doubtless guilty in the matter, though he could not have 
foreseen the appalling catastrophe. Now when Nero found 
that no religious processions and no generosity of provision 
for the impoverished victims of the disaster could free him 
from the suspicion he had incurred or restore him to popular 
favor, he adopted fresh tactics, and declared that a strict in- 
vestigation had brought it to light that the fire was raised by 
the Christians. 

Who furnished him with this monstrous conception ? Can it 
have been his Jewish favorites ? In any case the story found 
acceptance. The Christians, who had increased considerably 
in numbers since Paul arrived in Rome, and whose organiza- 
tion was now more distinct than formerly from that of the 
1 John xxi. 18, 19 ; 2 Peter i. 14. 



642 Paul's imprisonment and death. 

synagogue, had excited public attention ; while their holding 
aloof from the corrupt heathen society and their expectation 
of the end of the world, which some of them may have hailed 
in this very fire, had earned them the character of " enemies 
of mankind" with the populace and the cultivated classes 
alike. A horrible persecution broke out. Some of the be- 
lievers were crucified. Others were thrown to the lions in the 
amphitheatre, or wrapped in the skins of animals and torn to 
pieces by bloodhounds. Yet others were smeared with resin 
and pitch, secured to stakes of pinewood, and lighted up at 
nightfall to serve as torches. 

The last traces of Paul are lost in this night of horror. 
Are we to look for his blackened corpse among the rains 
of the conflagration? Or did he literally fight with wild 
beasts, and this time without being saved from the lion's 
mouth ? x 

Of his friends and fellow- workers, too, we have lost all 
certain information, except that we are told a few years later 
on that Timothy had been a prisoner, and was just released. 
Uncertain speculations or traditions point out Apollos as the 
possible author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Mark and 
Silvanus as the companions of Peter, and Titus as laboring 
in Crete and in Dalmatia. 2 But the fate of these men is far 
from exciting the same interest in our minds as that of the 
Apostle himself. The dead silence of history, unbroken even 
by his biographer and defender the author of Acts, has in- 
volved his martyr-death in obscurity, and has suffered this 
greatest of the followers of Jesus, this founder of the Christian 
Church, to fall by an unnoted — and in that sense an inglo- 
rious — death. In this there is something very painful. 

Paul was such as we have described him, — the greatest 
of the followers of Jesus, and the founder of the Christian 
Church ! Attempts have indeed been made to exalt him at 
the expense of Jesus, and to place him above his Master in 
penetration and grasp of mind, in freedom and breadth of 
view, and in superiority to national prejudice. This is a 
mistake. The admission of the heathen to the kingdom of 
God had already found a place in the mind of Jesus. All 
that was great and good in Paul's work he accomplished 
under the mastery of Christ's spirit ; and he himself ascribed 
it all, and ascribed it solely, to the might of the Christ which 
had come upon him and dwelt in him. Nay ! we must go 

i 1 Corinthians xv. 32 ; 2 Timothy iv. 17. 

2 Hebrews xiii. 23; 1 Peter v. 12, 13 ; Titus i. 5; 2 Timothy iv. 10. 



COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUL. 643 

further: He stands so far below Jesus, that iu his subtle 
doctrinal system we can hardly recognize the simple but 
eternally-enduring and inexhaustible wealth of the principles 
of Jesus ; in the sharp lines of his personality we can hardly 
trace the lineaments of the beloved image of Jesus. But this 
is undeniable : that the victoiy of the gospel over the heathen 
world is mainby due to the power and the gifts of Paul, with 
his insignificant person but his mighty spirit, with his zeal 
and inspiration, his elasticity and perseverance, his uncon- 
ditional self-surrender to his work. It was he whose marvel- 
lous power and intensity of soul and utter self-sacrifice 
severed Christianity from the S3magogue, when without him 
it would have remained an insignificant or forgotten Jewish 
sect ; it was he who worked it out into a new principle of life 
and a new s}'stem of religion, who proclaimed and estab- 
lished it in two continents with a courage, an energy, and a 
perseverance that have never been surpassed. In a word, 
Christianity, and therefore humanity, owes an inestimable 
debt to Paul ; and, except Jesus, we know of no human 
being who has won and still retains, after so many ages, an 
influence like his. 



Chapter XII. 

THE COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUL. 

Matthew XIII. 24-30, 36-43. Revelation ; James ; Jude. He- 
brews ; Colossians. 2 Thessalonians ; Matthew XXIV. 4-41 ; 1 
Luke XVIII. 1-8 ; 2 Peter. 1 Peter ; Ephesians ; 2 Timothy ; 
Titus ; 1 Timothy ; 1 John ; 2 John ; 3 John. 

JN making ready for the kingdom of God, many perplex- 
ities arise, such as this parable ma} T illustrate : — 
"A certain man had sown good and pure seed upon his 
land. But while he was asleep his enemy came and scat- 
tered darnel seed all about among the wheat. Both wheat 
and darnel grew up for a time without any one noticing the 
difference ; but when the ears began to form, then the 
laborers saw with dismay that the wheat was all mixed with 
the shabby darnel-stalks. So they went to ask their master 
what it could mean, and he replied : ' A hostile man has 
done it.' Then they asked whether the}' should not go at 
once and weed out all the darnel ; but he checked their zeal 

i Mark xiii. 5 ff.; Luke xvii. 22 ff., xxi. 8 ff. 



644 COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OP PAtTL. 

and forbade them, because they might so easily root up the 
wheat with it. ' Let them both grow together,' he said, ' till 
the harvest. Then I will tell the reapers to pick out the 
darnel before they bind up the sheaves, and to make it up 
into bundles for the furnace ; but the corn they must gather 
into my barn.' " 

Possibly this parable is founded upon some simpler one 
which Jesus may really have uttered as a companion to that 
of " the sower." 1 But in its present form it is due to the 
Jewish-Christians, and refers to what the} T regarded as the 
melancholy spectacle of so many members of the Christian 
communities still preserving their gentile modes of life. Such 
men among the true heirs of the Messianic salvation were 
like darnel among wheat. 2 They well knew that it was all 
the work of "a hostile man," who had scattered the false 
doctrine of "lawlessness" far and wide. Observe that this 
expression, " a hostile man," occurs elsewhere in Jewish- 
Christian writings, where it is unmistakably used to designate 
Paul. And it is doubtless specially to him that it applies 
hore also. It was he who had planted the weeds ! But 
how could the Lord suffer such a state of things to continue? 
A las ! in many a place the separation could not be effected 
except with great hurt to the faithful ; and before long, at the 
day of judgment, the Lord would command the angels to sift 
ovt the members of the community who ate meat sacrificed to 
idols, or were guilty of any other such " abomination and 
m icleanness, " and consign them to the place of weeping and 
gnashing of teeth. 3 

But when the first Evangelist took up this parable into his 
narrative, we see by the interpretation he adds that he was 
not aware of its strongly anti-Pauline purpose. He simply 
took it to mean that the Church, by the will of her Lord, must 
suffer the wicked to remain among the faithful until the last 
judgment. So he says : " The weeds are the children of the 
devil, and the ' enemy ' is the devil himself." 

Now when we consider it rightly, we shall find in all this 
the brief epitome of the internal history of the communities 
after Paul's death. In the first place, the parable itself 
reflects the unabated bitterness of the Jewish-Christians 
against the disciples of the Apostle of the gentiles, together 
with the unshaken hope of all the believers alike in the 
speedy and glorious return of the Christ. In the next place, 
Matthew's interpretation indicates the disappearance of these 

i See p. 153. 2 See pp. 585, 586, 101. s See pp. 307, 308. 



COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUL. 645 

early disputes, together with the relinquishing of the ideal of 
a pure communitj-, and the design of taking up and holding 
together in the Church good and bad alike ; all which makes 
up the old Catholicism. These three points then we must 
briefly deal with in succession : first, the continued strife ; 
second, the disappointed expectation of the Christ's return ; 
third, the rise of the Catholic Church. 

Perhaps Paul's great opponent, James, had already sealed 
his faith with his blood before the Apostle of the gentiles 
himself. His death, it is believed, was compassed by the 
violence of the high priest Ananias ; for the governor Festus 
died after holding office but a short time, and his successor, 
Albinus, did not arrive at once, whereupon the high priest 
seized the opportunity of condemning certain persons at 
Jerusalem to be stoned, one of whom may have been James 
(63 a.d.). Another tradition, preserved by the oldest Church 
historian, 1 declares that James '• the just" had been brought 
to the roof of the temple in order to deny the Crucified before 
the people ; but that instead of doing so he bore mighty wit- 
ness to his faith in him, upon which he was hurled down to 
be stoned to death, and while he was still praying for Lip 
murderers was dispatched by a certain fuller (69 a.d.). 

Concerning Peter and John we have nothing but uncertain 
and untrustworttry traditions. Peter is said to have founded 
the communities at Corinth and Rome ( !),and even to have 
been bishop in the latter place for five- and- twenty years ( !), 
and to have met a martyr's death there. John is said to have 
taken up his abode in Asia Minor, especially at Ephesun ; 
there to have composed the Gospel, the three letters, and 
the Apocalypse (Revelation), which bear his name, to have 
outlived the persecution of the emperor Domitian (between 
81 a.d. and 96 a.d.), and to have died, or at least fallen 
asleep, 2 at an extremely advanced age. All this rests upon 
loose foundations or upon none at all, and is partly contra- 
dicted by the oldest accounts. All the Apostles disappear 
without a trace. 

But though the heads of the primitive community and all 
the first generation of Jewish-Christians had left the stage, 
together with the Apostle of the heathen, yet their followers, 
who generally adopted their names and are therefore person- 
ally unknown to us, continued the strife. Still keeping with- 
in the limits of New Testament literature, we pass over the 
1 See p. 545. 2 See chap. xiii. p. 666. 



6i6 COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUX. 

spiteful stories preserved elsewhere which were circulated 
against Paul, together with the elaborate fiction of a sustained 
personal conflict between him and Peter, who is said to have 
followed him to Rome and overcome him there. 1 Nor shall 
we dwell on the unfavorable attitude adopted towards Paul by 
renowned and influential Christian writers of the second cen- 
tury. But we have already given several examples of hostile 
utterances preserved in the Gospels and Acts, 2 and will now 
consider two productions, emanating respectively from the ex- 
treme and the moderate Jewish-Christian schools, — namely, 
the Revelation (or Apocalypse) , and the epistle of James. 

In the Revelation we have the thoughts of a Jewish- 
Christian of Asia Minor, who may very well have been one 
of Paul's Ephesian opponents. This extraordinar3 T work, to 
which we shall presently return, was composed some four and 
a half years after Paul's death, and contains a description of 
the immediate future and of the kingdom of God, addressed 
to the seven communities of Ephesus, Snryrna, Pergamus, 
Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. The position 
taken by the author is highly noteworthy, especially as he 
represents a powerful section of the believers. Though he 
lays chief stress upon the moral requirements of the Law, 
and does not expressly maintain circumcision or sacrifice, 
he nevertheless remains a thorough Jew. In spite of the 
imposing titles which he lavishes upon Jesus, who is soon 
to return to earth, he still makes him essentially the Jewish 
Messiah ; Jerusalem is still the centre of the kingdom of 
God ; the Messianic salvation is still the heritage of the be- 
lieving Israel, to be shared b} T the believing gentiles only on 
condition of their incorporation with Israel, and even then 
only on the inferior footing of proselytes. Rome, who op- 
presses Israel, who sheds the blood of the believers in Jesus, 
our author regards as the seat of Satan's empire. Every thing 
gentile, and all that indicates the least tendency or inclination 
towards gentile practices, he holds an abomination ; the Jew- 
ish regulations as to food and cleanliness he regards as still 
binding. As a matter of course he exalts the Twelve to the 
utmost, and most emphatically denies the title of Apostle to 
Paul and his fellow-laborers, — none of whom he mentions 
by name, however. He brands with infamy Paul's precept 
to obey the heathen magistracy as God's servant, and in 
general launches into the most violent attacks upon hia 
doctrine and his followers. 

1 Compare p. 618. 2 See pp. 583 ff., 617, 307, 308. 



COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUL. * 647 

We notice all this more especially in the introduction, 
which consists of seven letters addressed by the glorified 
Christ to the seven communities above named, and from 
which we gather what was their internal condition at the 
time. We notice at once that in the ten years since Paul's 
labors in this region had closed, orthodoxy had made rapid 
strides and had won over man} T of his converts. This was 
especially true of Ephesus itself, where the community is 
commended by our author for rejecting and hating the false 
apostles and their followers. But we also learn that this 
same brotherhood had greatly fallen off in love, in moral 
purity, and in Christian zeal. So, too, Laodicea and Sardis 
are reproached as unendurably lukewarm and dead-alive. 
Pergamus and Tlryatira, on the other hand, are severely 
rebuked because man}* of the brethren in these places zeal- 
ously upheld and practised Pauline principles ; but the author 
admits that this detestable laxhry was combined with steadfast 
faith and warm love. So, too, he praises and encourages the 
little community of Philadelphia and that of Smyrna for their 
perseverance. 

If we ask what it was in the Pauline doctrines that es- 
pecially shocked him, we find that he loathed them as teach- 
ing the believers to eat meat offered to idols, and to practise 
inchastit}*. As to the first point, we may remember that 
Paul declared the practice in question a matter of no conse- 
quence and quite permissible so long as it was not allowed to 
tempt the weaker brethren into sin. The second reproach is 
aimed at marriages forbidden by the Jewish law, especially 
marriages with heathen. Paul on his side had expressly for- 
bidden the Christian husband or wife to seek a divorce from 
a heathen consort. 1 In a word, Paulinism, which was very 
likely driven to one-sided exaggerations at this time by some 
of the zealous preachers of enlightenment, was regarded by 
our author as contamination with heathenism, and he there- 
fore denounces it as the doctrine of Balaam, or of the " Mco- 
laitans " (i. e. destroyers of the people of the Lord) , or as the 
seduction of Jezebel. 2 Nay, if the Pauline Christians averred 
with their Apostle that they knew ' ' the depths of the Deity " 
in the counsel for the world's redemption, our writer cried in 
answer : " The}* are the depths of Satan ! " 3 It could hardly 
go further than this ! 

i 1 Corinthians vii. 12 ff. ; see pp. 554-557; vol. ii. pp. 480, 481, 503 

2 See vol. ii. pp. 208, 112, 135. 

8 Revelation ii. 24; compare 1 Corinthians ii. 10. 



648 * COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUL. 

Far different is the spirit of a certain letter written some 
twenty years or more after the fall of Jerusalem, in the name 
of James, the head of the primitive communhVv. It was ad- 
dressed by a believing Grecian Jew to " Israel in the disper- 
sion " (i. e., to the Jewish-Christians out of Palestine), and 
was probably sent to Alexandria. In this letter Paulinism is 
combated with much greater calmness, but with equal direct- 
ness ; and perhaps this little work is better calculated than 
any thing else to lessen or remove the prejudice with which 
we involuntarily regard the opponents of the Apostle of the 
gentiles. 1 For here we see a truly earnest, gifted, and noble 
nature entering the lists against Paul, on behalf of what 
seemed to be threatened morality. The writer's purpose is 
partly to encourage the community to which he writes under 
its sufferings, by pointing it to the hope that God will soon 
appear and establish His kingdom, but yet more to correct 
its worldliness and contentiousness. The believers were for 
ever disputing about religious problems. Perhaps one or 
more Pauline Christians had recently come over and intro- 
duced the brethren to their doctrines and to some of their 
master's epistles, and, while rejected by the majority, were 
not without determined supporters. Upon this our author, a 
moderate man, averse to all contention, comes forward. Re- 
garding all external precepts and ceremonial laws as having 
lapsed, and the distinction between Jew and gentile as having 
fallen with them, he insists with the utmost rigor upon the 
moral precepts of the Law, and makes a powerful attack 
upon Paul's central doctrine of justification by faith alone. 
He knew very well whom he was attacking ; for he illustrates 
the doctrine in question frv expressions and examples bor- 
rowed from the epistles to the Romans and to the Hebrews ; 
but nevertheless he declares that an}^ one who preaches this 
doctrine is a mere trifler, — for unless faith is supplemented 
by works it is dead. The fact is that he was far from having 
reached any such profound conception of the nature of faith 
as Paul entertained, nor had he really recognized the new 
principle of life in Christianit} 7 . Indeed, Paul's profundity 
of thought and intensity of emotional life brought him to a 
position too high for our author and the great majority of the 
believers to comprehend or attain to. The writer of this 
epistle was eminently practical, and he still felt the need of 
law. Christianity itself was to him a law to guide and con- 
trol our lives. He therefore still held by the Jewish-Christian 
principle. 

1 See pp. 546, 547. 



COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PATH.. 649 

Here we nm}' give the epistle of Jucle a passing notice, for 
it too is of Jewish-Christian origin. It gives itself out as 
written by the brother of James (and Jesus) , but is really of 
much later date. It is quite a short production and seems 
to be directed against a degenerate and one-sided form of 
Paulinism which pushed an exaggerated Christian freedom 
into the region of license. A host of sins are laid to the 
charge of its advocates, and divine judgment, illustrated by 
examples from the Old Testament and a quotation from the 
apocryphal book of Enoch, is denounced against them. The 
readers of the letter are urged to reflect upon the former warn- 
ings of the Apostles, and so to beware of false teachers, and 
to rescue their victims from them. 

But now let us review some of the writings that issued from 
the other side in support of Paulinism. One of these, the 
epistle to the Hebrews, we just now referred to. We have 
already seen from scattered traces in the Gospels that the 
Apostle of the gentiles was b}^ no means without warm sup- 
porters, who were zealous in defending his person and his 
principles. 1 Now the epistle to the Hebrews is a treatise 
which seems to have been written after the destruction of the 
temple, but before the epistle of James, and was addressed 
to Jewish-Christians who were in danger of being drawn back 
into Judaism by their excessive veneration for the Mosaic 
ritual. The author was evidentl} T versed in the Alexandrian 
philosophy, 2 and this has given rise to the idea that he may 
have been Apollos. His conception of the economy of things 
is highly characteristic. To him the Jewish religion is noth- 
ing but a faint copy or shadow of the dispensation and the 
blessings of salvation, which have existed from eternity with 
God, and are now imparted to or realized in Christianity, or 
rather will be when Jesus returns and perfects the kingdom 
of God. Herewith of course the shadow or cop}' loses all 
right of existence. All the ritual and all the history of the 
Old Testament served simply as types to announce and fore- 
shadow the new dispensation. Christ is typified by the high 
priest ; his work, b}~ the sacrifice of atonement for the people ; 
the Christian life of faith, b} T the priesthood ; the fruits of faith, 
by the sacrifices ; the blessedness to come, by the rest of the 
Sabbath ; the Christian community, b} r the people of God ; 
the salvation held out to them, by access to the holy of holies ; 
and entrance into the heavenly Jerusalem, by the inheritance 
of the Holy Land. Thus the Levitical priesthood, the sac- 

l See pp. 542, 543, 583 ff., 309 ff. 2 gee pp. 7, 28, 96. 

vol. in. 28 



650 COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAU1,. 

rificial ordinances, and all the types and foreukadowin^s 
together are now annulled. Christianity takes its own 
stand, not only in independence of Judaism, but in infinite 
exaltation above it. 

The epistle to the Colossians is similar in tone. It may be 
partially founded upon some writing of Paul, but as it stands 
it was certainly drawn up some years after his death. It is 
directed against certain doctrines which were spreading 
among the gentile-Christian communities in Phrygia. The 
school from which the} x emanated united the abstinence of 
the Essenes to extravagant speculations as to the Godhead 
and the spirit world, and was thus related at once to the 
severest Jewish-Christianity and to later forms of Oriental- 
heresy. The author of Colossians, like the writer of the 
epistle to the Hebrews, is at once a disciple of Paul and of 
the Alexandrian philosophy, and he teaches that the truth 
and the salvation which alwa} T s existed with God have been 
imparted to us in Christ. In him the fulness of the Deit} T is 
revealed, and in him the absolute redemption, the atonement 
that embraces all the universe, is accomplished. Christianity 
is the perfect religion, and gives perfect satisfaction to every 
want. 

B} T and by, when we come to speak of the Catholic Church, 
we shall refer to a few more of the literaiy productions of the 
liberal part}' ; but we have already traced the main lines at 
least of the attack and defence of Paulinism, and shall there- 
fore go on at once to open another page of the early history 
of post-apostolic Christianity. 

The points we have just touched upon make it all the more 
necessar} 7 for us to bear in mind that Jesus, the Apostles, and 
in a certain sense even Paul never intended to found a new 
religion. Their purpose was to enrol the citizens of the king- 
dom of God, and thus prepare for and hasten the dawn of the 
Golden Age. We have seen how Jesus adopted the expecta- 
tion of Israel, how he purified it from the blots that disfigured 
it, and how he himself undertook the chief burden of realizing 
it. When he died, the hopes of his disciples, who had greeted 
him as the Messiah, were for the moment dashed to the 
ground, but they soon revived in connection with the belief 
in his resurrection. Whatever differences there ma} T have 
been between the Twelve and Paul, they were completely at 
one in the hope that the glorified Master would soon return 
from his temporaiy abode and would bring the kingdom of 



COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF FAUX. 651 

God to earth. This hope was the main-spring of their work, 
the secret of their energy and perseverance ; nay, it was their 
very life ! This hope was the substance of the preaching of 
Christ among all parties alike ; it was the great motive to 
repentance in Jew and Gentile ; it was the entrancing pros- 
pect held out to all the faithful. " Maranatha ! " — the Lord 
comes — bursts as a cry of triumph from every page of the 
apostolic literature. 1 

We have already heard from Paul himself some of the 
details of the glorious future as he conceived it. From his 
doctrine that the flesh was the origin and seat of sin, it fol- 
lowed that it must be annihilated in the kingdom of God. In 
a moment of time, w r hen the trumpet sounded for the judg- 
ment of the world and the resurrection of the dead in immor- 
tality, the living would be overspread with a spiritual frame 
like that of the Christ, preserved for them in heaven till then, 
which w r ould supersede and utterly destroy their earthly bod}'. 
This was the full redemption ! Then would the sons of God 
be glorified indeed, and finally Nature herself would be freed 
from the curse that pressed upon her because of the sin of 
man, and would be likewise glorified. For after the resur- 
rection all rebellious powers would be subdued and death 
itself destroyed, and then the Christ would give up the king- 
dom to the Father, that God might be all in all men. 2 

We have also seen that at the close of his life the Apostle 
& >metimes thought of the possibility of his dying before this 
time should come. Now since he as a martyr would not 
have to descend into the shadow-land, this thought brought 
no perplexity to him personally ; but it is only natural that 
in the course of time man}' of the faithful should have grown 
impatient or downcast when the Christ did not return. An 
indication of this ma}' be found in the so-called second epistle 
to the Thessalonians, which oddly enough attempts to estab- 
lish its own authenticity by warning its readers against forged 
epistles. 3 This letter begins by describing how the Christ 
will come as judge, with glorious rewards and fearful chas- 
tisements ; but its special design is to relieve the strain of 
expectancy, and to point out by all manner of mysterious 
hints the reason of the delay. Wickedness must first reach 

1 See pp. 573, 600, 604, 607, 608, 640 ; also 447, 448, 482, 488, 489, 492, 495, 
567, 569, 570, 571, et seq. 

2 Romans viii. 18 fit. ; 1 Corinthians xv. 23-28, 50-54; 2 Corinthians v. Aff.5 
Philippians iii. 20, 21, et seq. 

3 2 Thessalonians ii. 2. 



652 COMMUNITIES AFTER THE Di. \TH. OF PAUL. 

its culmination, and the grewsome foe must come who will 
put himself in the place of God and do miracles in the power 
of Satan. But as yet he is held back, and henre this delay. 
So the believers must wait in quiet trust. 

We shall presently meet with this foe or Antichrist again. 
Meanwhile we may observe, in explanation of what is 3-et to 
come no less than what we have just noted, that there were 
other causes besides natural impatience which helped to 
plunge the Christians into all manner of speculations as to 
the future. They may be found in the special circumstances 
of the times, which are referred to in the vague hints just 
quoted. The hideous reign of Nero with his fearful persecu- 
tion of the believers, the strained position of affairs after his 
death, the insurrection of the Jewish people, and much more 
besides, combined to inflame the imagination with visions of 
the speed j t end of the world. We have still two writings in the 
New Testament which date from this period. Both of them 
belong to the apocalyptic literature, — that is to say they profess 
to lift the veil from the future ; they imitate the prophetic 
writings (especially the visions) in form, and in substance 
contain a forecast of the immediate future, based on the 
application of ancient oracles to the circumstances of the daj T , 
and painted in glowing colors. 1 One of these two writings 
is the fugitive piece incorporated, with some modifications, 
among the latest utterances of Jesus, in the first three Gos- 
pels. It declares that after terrible wars, famine, pestilence, 
and earthquake, with a universal persecution of the Christians 
and finally one special event of unutterable horror, the Christ 
will come again in great glory amidst terrific signs in heaven. 2 
There is an obvious reference to the Jewish war in all this. 
The Christians are told to flee to the mountain-land. But 
whether the original work really hinted at the fall of the peo- 
ple, of the city, and of the temple, — all which we find pre- 
dicted and described in the latest additions, — it is impossible 
for us to say. 3 The other apocalyptic work to which we re- 
ferred is the Eevelation, written at the end of 68 a.d., or in 
Januar}^ 69 a.d., some months after the death of Nero, and 
given out under the name of John, or at airy rate as the book 
of his visions, in which the Lord is represented as having 
revealed to him on the island of Patmos the approaching 
triumph of God's kingdom over hostile powers. The Apostle 

1 See p. 401 ; and vol. ii. pp. 555 fi\ 

2 Matthew xxi v. 4 ff. (Mark xiii. 5 ff. ; Luke xvii. 22 ff., xxi. 8 ff.) ; see p 402. 
« Luke xxi. 20, 24. 



COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUL. 653 

John, however, had in all probabilit}^ nothing to do with this 
book. Let us see what it contains. 

First, as an introduction, the Christ appears and dictates 
the seven letters of which we spoke just now. Then the seer 
looks up into heaven where God sits on the throne of his 
gloiy, with the book of the future in his hand, sealed with 
seven seals. Who is wortlry to break them? None but he 
who' was slain like a lamb to found the kingdom of God. 
Endowed with God's power and wisdom this Lamb takes the 
roll, and while heaven rings with a hymn of praise to him he 
breaks the seven seals one after the other. As the seals are 
broken, the scenes of the immediate past and the future pass 
before our eyes. As the first four are broken, the Conqueror 
(that is the Roman Empire) marches forth upon the earth, 
followed by War, Famine, and Death, kvying all things waste. 
When the fifth seal is broken, the victims of the persecution 
of 64 a.d. cry out for vengeance ; but they must still be 
patient for a little while, till the number of the martyrs is com- 
plete. When the sixth seal is broken, terrific natural phe- 
nomena take place, as awful messengers of the judgment. 
This is the prelude. 

The catastrophe is still delayed for a little while in order 
that the chosen ones — twelve thousand from each of the 
tribes of Israel, and a countless multitude from the heathen 
— may be taken under God's faithful protection against the 
coming oppression. Then, amid strained expectation, the 
last seal is opened. The seven archangels come forward with 
trumpets, and in answer to the prayers of the saints the judg- 
ment is proclaimed. As the first five trumpets sound in suc- 
cession, desolating phenomena of Nature take place. When 
the sixth trumpet sounds, a numerous army advances from the 
East. This is the Parthian invasion which was expected. 
But those who have not perished amidst all these plagues still 
remain as godless as ever. A great angel now swears that 
the judgment is coming without delay. Jerusalem is trodden 
under foot bj T the Romans for three years and a half, the 
temple alone being spared, during all which time two witnes- 
ses of God are preaching as Moses and Elijah. Then they 
are killed by the Antichrist, but after three-and-a-half days 
are taken up to heaven ; upon which the remnant of Israel is 
converted. 

The seventh angel now blows the trumpet, as a sign that 
the end is come. A woman (the true Israel) is chased from 
heaven by the dragon Satan, and when her child (the Mes- 



654 COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUL. 

siah) has been taken up by God, she escapes to the wilder- 
ness (th^ Christian communit} 1 - retires to Pella, beyond the 
Jordan, a. the siege of Jerusalem) . Satan, cast down from 
heaven, continues his persecutions. He gives his power to a 
monster with seven heads that rises out of the sea, and is 
worshipped by all the world (the Roman Empire, with its 
seven Caesars from Julius to Galba). One of these seven 
heads is mortally wounded, but afterwards is healed (Nero, 
who was supposed not to be realty dead, but to have escaped 
to Parthia, whence he would ere long return) . This monster, 
Nero, whose name is given in figures, 1 is the Antichrist. 
Another monster who is in his service represents the lying 
prophets, who enjoin, among other abominations, strict obe- 
dience to the authorities, even should they be heathen. The 
Lamb, the Christ, sets himself with his saints against both 
these monsters on Mount Sion. An angel proclaims the gos- 
pel over all the earth ; another announces the fall of Rome ; 
a third utters a last warning before the judgment. 

Then comes the end ! Once more seven visions pass be- 
fore us. Seven angels advance with the seven vessels of 
God's wrath, from which none but the chosen are exempt. 
As the} 7 pour them out, one bj T one, seven plagues burst upon 
the impenitent world as judgments of God. Meanwhile Nero 
is hatching his evil plots among the Parthians. Rome, the 
City of the Seven Hills, appears in all her glory as a woman 
riding upon the monster, Nero, and wages war against the 
Lamb. The monster and his ten commanders themselves 
give over the capital of the world to destruction. Its fall is 
celebrated with triumph in heaven, but bewailed by the 
heathen on earth. Now the Christ comes to the battle with 
his war-hosts, vanquishes both the monsters and hurls them 
into the pool of fire ; vanquishes Satan and binds him for 
a thousand years in the abyss. For these thousand years 
the martjTs and the faithful reign upon earth with the 
Christ. 

After this, Satan is released again and brings the barbarians 
of the North against the community, but is then subdued for 
ever. Then all the dead rise up and are judged according to 
their works. A new heaven and a new earth replace the old ; 
and the new Jerusalem descends, more beauteous than tongue 
can say or heart conceive, the seat of spotless sanctity and 
undisturbed delight. This is the perfected kingdom of God, 
whence pain and death and sin are banished ; it is the dwell- 

1 Revelation xiii. 18. 



COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUL. 655 

lug of God with men, the imperishable state of perfect glory 
and blessedness. 

At the end of his book the seer still repeats the glowing 
assurance that the time is very near at hand, and the Christ 
is coming speedily. He had repeatedh T laid down half a week 
of 3'ears as the limit. 1 Think under what a growing strain of 
expectation he himself, his friends, and the readers of his 
book must have lived from day to day ! Was it possible that 
his reckoning should fail, and the promise and the hope :te 
put to shame ? 

We know how completely these expectations were disap- 
pointed. Jerusalem, where the temple at least was never to 
be violated, fell utterly, and the sanctuaiy was laid low never 
to rise again ; while Rome, instead of being turned to a desert, 
still held her rank and fame. Nero, the Antichrist, was dead 
and never returned to life ; but neither did the Christ come 
back to earth. The martyrs were not avenged, but fresh per- 
secutions awaited the faithful. The kingdom of Satan held 
its own, and the kingdom of God came not. 

Words cannot tell the full measure of this disappointment. 
It was not confined to the author of Revelation, who had 
imagined he could fix the very moment. It was not confined 
to those Jewish-Christians who had gazed with him upon the 
breathless conflict between their countiymen and the Roman 
colossus, who like him had conceived it impossible that the 
only temple of the true God upon earth should be suffered to 
fall in ruins ; who had been heart and soul with the Jews in 
their struggle, and had expected to the very last moment a 
j'03'ous end, perhaps the kingdom of God itself. No ! it wag 
not confined to them ; for all the Christians alike grew sick at 
heart when year after year passed by and still saw that prom- 
ise unfulfilled which had been held before them from the very 
hour when thej r first believed, and had ever since been re- 
peated and yet again repeated, as we saw from the epistle to 
the Hebrews and the epistle of James. And now the pressure 
of the evil times weighed heavier and heavier upon them, the 
prospect of deliverance held out to them had failed, the whole 
generation of the first believers had died out, and he who 
was surely to have come before that time in all his glory 2 still 
dela} T ed. Alas ! the communit}' , bereft of her Lord and Head. 
was like a poor widow, — the helpless victim of violence and 
oppression, seeking protection and redress from the ruler of 

1 See vol. ii. p. 5G2. 

2 See, for example, Matthew xvi. 27, 28. 



656 COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUL. 

all the earth, and seeking in vain. What was she to do? 
She could but persevere, with indomitable resolution, m pray- 
ing, urging, pleading, beseeching, and hoping. Even on earth 
the most inhuman judge would yield to such persistency ! 

It was in those da}'s that the following story * was put into 
the mouth of Jesus : — 

In a certain city there lived a judge who cared for neither God 
nor man. And there was also a certain widow there who came 
to him to tell him of her wrongs, and besought him to give 
her justice and to punish her oppressors. For a long time he 
would not ; but still she persevered, and came to him every 
morning with her appeal. At last he thought, " Though I do 
it neither for God's sake nor man's, yet I must redress this 
widow's wrongs, or she will fall upon me at last in frenzj 7 ." 
Even the unrighteous would do thus ; and shall God refuse 
to hear his chosen ones who cry to him day and night ? Must 
the} T still wait for justice ? Nay, surely He will speedily re- 
dress their wrongs ! But when the Son of Man comes, will 
he find faith on the earth ? 

We can understand this metaphor, this reiterated assur- 
ance, this mournful and doubting question at the end ! 
Meanwhile it was inevitable that many should grow weary 
at last of their unanswered prayers and disappointed hopes. 
And that the} 7 really did so is shown in one of the latest of 
the books of the New Testament, the second epistle of Peter. 
It is to some extent imitated from the epistle of Jude, and 
was written some time after 150 a. d., to confute certain false 
teachers, who abused their Christian freedom, and at the 
same time cried in mockery : ' ' What has become of the 
promise of Christ's return? Our fathers before us hoped for 
it, — and are dead. Every thing goes on just the same ! " 
How does the writer refute them? He declares that the 
promise is certain, and refers in confirmation to the trans- 
figuration on the mount, 2 and to the ancient oracles. The 
day of judgment will surety come, and the heaven and earth 
that now are will then be destroyed with fire. But God, to 
whom a thousand years are as a single day, is long-suffering 
towards the Christians ; for He would not have an} T perish, 
but would have them all to be converted before the end. 

This subterfuge certainly satisfied none who were not al- 
ready determined to be convinced. But hope is tenacious 
of life. 

i Luke xviii. 1-8, 2 See pp. 502 ff. 



COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUL. 657 

We have now glanced at the continued divisions and the 
disappointed hopes of apostolic Christianity. 

Some means of pacifying both the party spirit and the 
frustrated anticipations must be hit upon. Faith and hope 
alike were under a strain they could not bear. The continued 
existence and the growing strength of the communities, to- 
gether with the natural tendency of the faithful to enter into 
united relations with one another, called aloud for the sup- 
pression of this conflict of parties ; and the necessity was no 
less pressing for some relief from the constant strain of ex- 
pectation, and a return to some settled order of life. This 
twofold want was met by the old Catholic Church, but greatly 
at the cost of faith and hope alike. 

In the middle of the second century, and for a long time 
afterwards, we find a numerous party, both in Italy and in 
the East, claiming with a certain right to represent the gen- 
uine followers of Paul, though adding to the Apostle's doc- 
trines certain subtle speculations quite foreign to Christianity, 
as to the nature of the Deny, revelation, creation, the Old 
Testament, and the person of Jesus. The head of this sect 
was Marcion, the fiery opponent of every trace of Judaism or 
Jewish-Christianity in the community. He and his followers 
recognized the authority of Paul alone, to the exclusion of 
that of the Twelve Jewish Apostles ; as authentic documents 
of Christianity they accepted nothing but the gospel of Luke, 
here and there modified or condensed, and ten Pauline epis- 
tles ; and the}- exaggerate the contrast between Law and 
gospel, between Israelitish and Christian religion, into an 
absolute contradiction. 1 

At the opposite extreme stood the Ebionites, both at Rome 
and in Syria and Palestine. Thej^ were the real old-fash- 
ioned Jewish-Christians, the genuine sons of the primitive 
community. For themselves they held to circumcision and 
observance of the Law as conditions of salvation, and for the 
most part would have forced them upon the heathen converts 
also. In their conception of the person of Jesus they re- 
mained true to their Jewish point of view. They rejected 
Paul, or even pursued him with unabated rancor ; and their 
favorite or only gospel was a version of Matthew slightly dif- 
fering from ours. 

But between these two extremes a third party had formed 

itself. It rose out of the other two by a gradual compromise, 

till at last it stood in a position of antagonism to both. It 

l See pp. 21, 22, 301, 586. 

28* 



6.')8 COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUL. 

was already the most powerful of thein all, and presently it 
branded the irreconcilables of both the extreme schools as 
heretics, and shut them out of Christian communion. Every 
thing combined to secure its triumph. We have already seen * 
that the Jewish-Christians were early compelled to reduce 
their demands on the converted heathen very considerably. 
As the relative numbers of the gentile converts continued to 
swell, and the Jewish-Christians sank into an ever smaller 
minorit} T , it became more and more impossible to compel 
the former to become Jews. Again, the fall of Jerusalem, 
the temple, and the Jewish nation worked powerfully in the 
same direction, for it deprived the Jewish-Christians of their 
chief supports and moorings, destro}*ed the imposing Jewish 
ritual, and threw much of the ceremonial law into disuse. 
Hence the expectation of the kingdom of God spontaneously 
dropped its characteristic Jewish tone, Christianity rose to 
complete independence, and was definitely separated from Ju- 
daism. Again, the death of Paul had put an end to his per- 
sonal defence of his own character and position. Thenceforth 
the authority of the Twelve, especially of the three " pillars," 
could hardly be contested. And, besides, the majority of 
the followers of Paul had never realty understood the depth 
of their Apostle's gospel, and as a rule the real difference 
of principle between him and the Twelve had escaped them. 
All this will enable us to understand that thej T too came 
strongly under the influence of that conciliatory spirit which 
had dictated the epistle to the Romans and the journey to 
Jerusalem in the case of Paul himself. Under these influ- 
ences they surrendered many points of essential importance, 
and indeed were read}' to restore and maintain the unit}' of 
the Christian community at any price. 

So now the sharp corners of Paulinism and Jewish Chris- 
tianity alike were rubbed off. The observance of some few 
legal precepts were enjoined upon the gentile converts ; 2 and 
though these ordinances were reduced within the narrowest 
limits, 3 T et they involved the sacrifice of the great principle 
of justification by faith alone independently of all religious 
observances, and in this sense were as decisive as if they had 
been more numerous. Circumcision was given up, but bap- 
tism took its place as a compulsory form indispensable to 
salvation, and was declared to have been instituted by Jesus 
himself. 3 Christianity itself was conceived, described, and 
applied as a new Law. The Master was declared to have 
i See p 597. 2 See p. 556. 8 See pp. 472, 473. 



COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUL. 659 

entrusted the conversion of the heathen to the Twelve, and 
more especially to Peter. 1 And thus when Paul had been 
robbed of his real merit, his person, which was still re- 
garded with animosity in many quarters, might be quietly 
dropped into the background ; for now that the Twelve were 
regarded as the direct patrons of the heathen converts, the 
position of the latter in the Christian community in no way 
depended upon Paul, and it became equally superfluous to 
assert his equality or his subordination to the Jewish Apos- 
tles. At the same time reverence was paid to the principle 
of official qualifications and external authority ; for the exten- 
sion of the gospel to the heathen was regarded as resting 
upon the commission of the Master himself, as its only valid 
ground, instead of being due to the individual conception of 
one who came after him. This is characteristic of the direc- 
tion taken henceforth b} 7 Christianity. 

As illustrating this movement of conciliation, let us glance 
at the first epistle of Peter and the epistle to the Ephesians, 
two documents of great moral and religious as well as literaiy 
worth, dating from the end of the first or the early years of 
the second century. The book of Acts, of somewhat later 
origin, is also interesting from the same point of view. The 
first of Peter is designed to encourage the Christians under 
suffering and oppression, and to exhort them steadfastly to 
practise and confess the gospel ; but its conciliator} 7 purpose 
is also veiy obvious. It professes to have been written by 
Peter, and entrusted by him to Paul's fellow- worker, Silas 
(whom it highly commends), in order that he might deliver 
it to the Pauline communities in Asia Minor, to reassure 
them as to the genuineness of the Christianity they professed. 
Though the writer makes free use of the epistle of James, 
he is equally indebted to the epistle to the Romans, and he 
imitates the style of Paul. Paul's doctrine also reappears 
in its main features in this letter, though the writer does not 
grasp his full depth and scope ; and the Pauline motto that 
gave so much offence — "justification b} T faith alone ! " — is 
studiously avoided. Finally, the union of all Christians is 
repeatedly insisted on. 

Nowhere in the New Testament is the effort to secure 
unity so obvious as in the epistle to the Ephesians, a docu- 
ment of no less value than the first of Peter. Here a Pauline 
Christian exhorts the gentile believers above all things to be 
tolerant, and to preserve unity in the bond of peace, which 

i See pp. 471, 472, 553 if., 293. 



660 COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OP PAHI. 

is the fruit of the Spirit. " There is one body, and one 
Spirit ; one hope to which all are called ; one Lord, one faith, 
one baptism, one God and Father of all." 1 Nay, the unity 
of all the believers, whether Jews or gentiles, is the essence 
of God's eternal scheme of salvation*, the final goal of the 
Christ's work. Then let paily spirit utterly disappear ; "all 
must attain to the unity of faith and the knowledge of God's 
Son." 2 The community is united to the Christ as a woman 
to her husband : it makes one single body, of which Christ 
is the head and the soul ; it is a temple of God, of which 
Christ is the corner-stone, the Apostles and Christian prophets 
the foundation, the Jewish and gentile believers the well-set 
stones. 

Finally, we have already seen how the author of Acts 
wrote his work with the same desire to secure peace and 
unity ; how he completely disguised the former dissensions ; 
how he made Peter almost a Pauline and Paul altogether a 
Jewish-Christian ; and how he obliterated all the most striking 
characteristics from Paul's gospel. 3 But we must not be too 
severe upon the author of Acts personally. It is true that in 
spite of his reverence for Paul he not only sacrificed his prin- 
ciples, but even maimed or falsified his histor}^ ; but he realty 
scarcely knew what he was doing. Paul's real gospel had 
become almost unintelligible to him ; the historical tradition 
was often very turbid even when it reached him ; the condi- 
tions of his own times he assumed to have existed in the 
Apostle's ; and when he knew better, — well, well, for all that, 
these Ebionites and Marcionites could not and should not be 
justified b} 7 histoiy ! In a word, the preconceptions of those 
among whom he lived were so ingrained in him that he 
saw every thing through a colored glass. 

His book was probably composed at Rome, which was the 
natural stage for the reconciliation, or rather confusion, of 
the two parties. After the fall of Jerusalem the centre of 
Christianity naturally gravitated towards Rome ; and Nero's 
persecution, by conspicuously decking the Roman community 
with the crown of martyrdom, worked powerfully in the same 
direction The independent rise, without any special foun- 
der, of the original community at Rome, before Paul or any 
other party leader had arrived there, likewise favored con- 
ciliation. Moreover the capital of the world, towards which 
ever} T movement converged and in whicb they all mingled, 

1 Ephesians iv. 4-b. 2 Ephesians iv. 13. 

8 See, for instance, pp. 555, 616, 617. 



COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF FAtJL. 601 

was in itself the most natural place for the Christian faitli to 
find its own internal level in, so to speak, and set aside the 
dissensions of its factions. It is significant that a legend 
without the smallest historical foundation should have risen 
at a tolerably earl}* period, — to the effect that Peter was 
bishop of Rome for a quarter of a century, that he and Paul 
preached there side by side, and perished as martyrs on the 
selfsame da}\ It is curious to note here as elsewhere that 
in these compromises and reconciliations Paul is always losing 
and Peter gaining ground : till at last the supremacy of the 
latter is undisputed, Paul is rather tolerated at his side than 
made the partner of his honors, and finally stands in need 
of his special recommendation. 1 

In Pome a conspicuous part was also played in meeting 
the other demand to which we have referred. The disap- 
pointment which had waited on the glorious expectations of 
primitive Christianity must be concealed and forgotten. The 
Christians began gradually to accept the facts, and the strain 
of expectation was relaxed. The} T reconciled themselves as 
best the} 7 could with the present world and the established 
order of things, from which they had at first held sternly 
aloof in an attitude of extreme hostility, in the belief that 
all was. to perish speedily. As Christiairuy spread, it betrayed 
a growing desire to seize and exercise something more than a 
spiritual power over the world, and, as a kind of compensa- 
tion for the kingdom of heaven which never came, to es- 
tablish a more familiar power, — in fact a kingdom of this 
world. The community, which had hitherto had an altogether 
provisional existence, now began to establish itself on a per- 
manent basis. In a word, it became a Church ; that is to say 
it regarded itself henceforth as a divinely-instituted vehicle 
of salvation, be} T ond the communion of which none could 
hope to be saved, which would triumph over every hostile 
power, however sorely beset, and would endure for ever. 
All this Jesus himself was said to have declared ! 2 Hence- 
forth this " Church" took the place of the kingdom of God. 
When the supernatural renovation of all things failed, the 
Christians instead of redoubling their spiritual efforts, re- 
turning to the primitive conception of Jesus, and tr} T ing to 
realize the moral ideal of the kingdom of God in this world, 8 
let the ideal go and embraced in its stead the wretched im- 
perfections of the reality. Of course they could not simply 

1 2 Peter iii. 15, 15 2 See p. 319. 

* See pp. 151, 152, 517, 334, 335, 347 ff. 



662 COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUL. 

ignore this expectation of the glorious return of Jesus to the 
judgment, for it runs through every page of the apostolic 
literature ; but they relegated it to such a distant future that 
it amounted to much the same as abandoning it. Meanwhile 
they taught that each one as he died would at once receive 
his provisional sentence and recompense. So complete was 
the change, that ere long the preaching of the return of Jesus, 
which had once been the delight and strength of all the be- 
lievers, had become the source of uneasy dread ! 

At the same time we are bound to admit that the estab- 
lishment of the Church was really called for, in as far as it 
was needed to resist and crush those extravagances which 
have alwa} r s attended the spread of every strong religious 
movement, and from which Christianity itself was b} r no 
means exempt. In the East especially a host of sects arose 
who brought the wildest speculations, often of heathen origin, 
into some kind of connection with the gospel or the person of 
Jesus, and commonly united them either with exaggerated self- 
discipline or with unrestrained licentiousness. The Church 
set her face against these sects, and proclaimed herself to be 
endowed with superhuman authority, and to be in the pos- 
session of the pure doctrine and the genuine commandments 
of Jesus. She had received them through Peter and the 
other Apostles, to whom Jesus himself had expressly en- 
trusted this authority ! * She declared herself to represent 
the union of all true believers in all the earth , of one heart 
and mind, wherever the} T might be, who might safely trust in 
all their trials in the protecting nearness of the Christ and 
the gracious favor of God ; 2 and so she called herself, in 
opposition to these heretics, the Catholic, or common, all- 
embracing, Church. 

And now that Christianity had set foot on this new path, it 
would tread it to the end. The first necessity was to regulate 
worship. Baptism and the Lord's Supper, — both of them 
regarded as institutions of Jesus himself, and both of them 
acquiring by degrees the character of mysteries, — formed 
the centre of the new system. The observance of the first 
da} T of the week as the day on which Jesus rose from the dead 
took the place of the Jewish Sabbath ; for, although the Chris- 
tians gradually framed their institutions more and more upon 
the model of the Jewish priesthood and temple, yet they made 
a point of breaking completely loose from Judaism itself, and, 
for instance, would not celebrate Easter on the daj T of the 

i See p. 319; Matthew xviii. 18. 2 Matthew xviii. 19, 20 



COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUL. 60'S 

Jewish Passover. There was a fierce conflict on this point, 
however, before it was decided. 

Church government and church discipline now make their 
appearance. The main lines of the latter were, after the 
custom we have illustrated so often, embodied in a precept 
laid upon the lips of Jesus himself: " If a brother has sinned, 
go and reprove him privately yourself. If he listens to you, 
you have saved your brother ; but if not, take one or two 
witnesses with }*ou, according to the Law. 1 If he will not 
listen to them, bring the matter before the Church ; but if he 
is obstinate even then, let him be as a heathen and a publican 
to you : " 2 that is, let him be laid under the ban of the Church. 
How far had the Christians strayed from the spirit of him who 
expressly sought out the publicans ! We may call to mind, 
in passing, how Paul demanded the enforcement of church 
discipline at Corinth. 8 This ecclesiastical ban, or curse, was 
destined to become a fearful weapon in the hands of the 
priesthood ! 

The authority of the Apostles offered a basis for the regu- 
lation of church government. Overseers or elders were eai ly 
appointed in imitation of the practice of the synagogues. 4 
Deacons and deaconesses superintended works of love for the 
poor and the sick ; 5 and these, together with other office! s, 
were duly regulated, and the qualifications for holding them 
defined. Most interesting contributions to our knowledge of 
this subject are furnished by the three so-called pastoial 
epistles, drawn up in the name of Paul. They are 2 Timo- 
thy, Titus, and 1 Timotlrv, and are chiefly concerned with 
questions of heres3 T and of church government. Here we 
find it laid down, for instance, that a man is not fit to held 
office in the Church if he has married a second wife, — the 
first step towards the doctrine that the clergy should not 
marry at all. The purpose of these letters is to regulate 
church life, to draw the bonds of communion closer, and to 
uphold sound doctrine against false teachers. The office of 
overseer, or bishop, is especially exalted in the latest of the 
three (1 Timothy). The bishop is to be ordained by the as- 
sociated elders, with the laying on of hands ; he must be 
specially zealous in defending the purity of doctrine, and 
must see that others are so too ; but he has also to undertake 

1 Deuteronomy xix. 15. 2 Matthew xviii. 15-17. 

» See pp. 595/602-604. 

* See pp. 140, 198, 512, 513, 534, 539, 554, 555. 

6 See pp. 571, 639. 



664 COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OE PAUL. 

the general superintendence and discipline of the community, 
especially of the widows and female officers of the Church ; 
and his authority extends to the elders themselves. 

Thus, to preserve the unity of the Church and to ward off 
heresy, the bishops were gradually distinguished from the 
elders and clothed with a special authority ; their nomination 
in due form was regarded as an appointment by the Holy 
Spirit to watch over the flock ; x they were consolidated into 
a spiritual order distinguished from the laitj r or ordinaiy be- 
lievers ; and gradually a single head was placed in authority, 
first over a community, then over a province, then over a 
whole country. Thus we may trace a more and more distinct 
attempt to concentrate the governing power in a class, in an 
assembly, and finally in a single man. In the West that man 
was the bishop of Rome. So the Church was more and more 
completely modelled after the type of the Roman empire. 

Thus the Catholic Church rose up against the heretics. 
To some of these latter we have already referred ; 2 and here 
we need only mention further a sect of believers who drew a 
sharp distinction between Jesus and Christ. They believed that 
the Christ was a supernatural being, who had been united 
with Jesus, an ordinary man, at the moment of his baptism in 
the Jordan, and had afterwards departed from him at the 
time of his suffering and death. This doctrine would have 
wrenched Christianity away from its historical foundations, 
and would have destroyed the meaning alike of Christ's ex- 
ample and of his death upon the cross. We mention this 
sect because the three so-called epistles of John are directed 
against it ; and in defiance of the original meaning of the 
term they stigmatize it as the Antichrist. None of these 
three letters themselves profess to be the work of John. The 
first of them is not really a letter at all, but an exceedingly 
beautiful treatise on Christian fellowship or unity of faith, 
based upon moral purity and manifested in works of brotherly 
love. The second and third letters are addressed, by an 
anonymous elder, respectively to an unknown woman or 
communnVy and to a certain equally unknown Gaius ; and they 
contain warnings against the heres3 T of which we have just 
spoken and against one Diotrephes. They are thoroughly 
impregnated with the Catholic spirit. 

In conclusion, it could not be long before the Church must 
feel the want of a list of apostolic or sacred writings, officially 
drawn up and established, to be placed side by side with the 
1 See p. 612 ; and 1 Peter v. 1-4. 2 See pp. 650, 657. 



COMMUNITIES AFTER THE DEATH OF PAUL. 666 

Old Testament, as a "rule of faith," or canon. We have 
alread}' treated of the origin of all the writings ultimately in- 
cluded in this list, with the single exception to be dealt with 
in the next chapter ; and we have seen that most of them 
were simply intended to serve some special or temporary 
purpose. 1 With regard to twent}^ of them, agreement was 
soon reached ; but as to the rest great diversity of opinion 
long prevailed. Some received into their canon a letter bear- 
ing the name of Barnabas, and an epistle of Clement to the 
Corinthians, together with other products of the earty Chris- 
tian literature ; others, on the contrary, rejected Hebrews, 
James, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jucle, and Revelation, — or 
if not all, at least some of these books. It was not till the 
fourth and fifth centuries that the matter was finally decided. 

But this lies far beyond our field. We have seen the 
Catholic Church wipe out both the dissensions and the dis- 
appointment of the primitive Christians, but greatly to the 
cost of faith and hope alike. How unlike is this Church to 
the kingdom of God which Jesus came to found ! And }^et 
its spread, its triumph, and its supremac} T are the objects for 
which all the religious forces of Christianit} 7 are henceforth 
claimed ! 

But with this melancholy result we are not forced to con- 
clude. Another attempt was made to solve the difficulties 
and remove the dissensions of Christianity. There were 
some who would not yield to the sad and imperfect realny, 
and lose themselves in it, as the Church had done ; but 
rather sought a refuge in higher flights of philosophy and 
greater moral elevation, whereb}' they were enabled still to 
preach an ideal that was exalted beyond the reach of all 
opposition and all disappointment. In the canon itself there 
was room found for the witness of faith concerning the 
Christ of "the disciple whom Jesus loved." 

i See pp. 573, 574, 580 ; chapters ix. p. 595, xii. p. 643, and pp. 22-33 ; see 
also chapter xiii. p. 666. 



666 DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 

Chapter XIII. 

THE DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 

Gospel according to John. 

WHEN we look into the Fourth Gospel we soon observe 
that the last chapter did not originally belong to it, 
but was added later. At the close of the previous chapter 
the work itself has come to a beautiful and appropriate close, 
after which we expect nothing more. 1 Nevertheless, when 
we examine this supplement carefully we find that it is not 
out of place, for it serves to throw light upon the meaning of 
the Gospel, or rather upon the person of " the disciple whom 
Jesus loved " on whose authority the Gospel is supposed to 
rest. Let us hear what it sa t ys : — 

It was during the da} 7 s when the Lord, having risen from 
the realm of shades, still appeared from time to time to his 
friends on earth. Peter, with Thomas, Nathanael of Cana, 
the two sons of Zebedee, and two others, had gone out to 
fish. The whole night long they had swept the Galilsean sea 
without taking any thing, when just at break of da} 7 they saw 
a stranger standing on the shore who asked them what suc- 
cess they had had. They told him none ; and on this he 
confidentially urged them to cast the net on the right. They 
obeyed, and immediately found the net so full that they could 
not draw it up. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved knew 
that it was he, and told Peter ; whereupon Peter threw his 
mantle round him, girded it close, flung himself into the 
water, and swam to the shore, which was about three hun- 
dred feet distant. The rest followed with the boat, dragging 
the net with the fish in it after them. On the shore they 
found a fire ready kindled, with some fish broiling on it, and 
some bread. Jesus told them to bring some of the fish they 
had taken ; whereupon Peter dragged up the net upon the 
land, and, though there were a hundred and fifty-three great 
fishes in it, } T et it was not torn. Then the} T ate together, 
Jesus acting as the host or head of the family ; but they were 
all too much in awe to question him. 

When the meal was over, Jesus turned to Peter and said, 
" Simon, son of Jona, dost thou love me more than these 
i See p. 690. 



DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. bb i 

others do?" 1 " Yes, Lord ! thou tlryself knowest that I love 
thee dearly," answered Peter. " Pasture my lambs ! " replied 
Jesus. After a time he repeated the question, " Simon, son 
of Jona, lovest thou me?" and when Peter gave the same 
unhesitating answer he again laid on him that task of honor, 
"Feed my sheep!" Yet again, the third time, he said to 
him, " Simon, son of Jona, dost thou love me dearly?" upon 
whiqh the Apostle, tortured by the threefold question which 
referred so clearly to his own threefold denial, cried out, 
" Lord ! since thou knowest all things, thou knowest this also, 
that I love thee dearly." Then Jesus answered, "Pasture 
my sheep ! " and, telling Peter how he would be led as a cap- 
tive in old age to the place of his execution, urged him to 
follow his Master to the very death. Now when Peter looked 
round he saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was also fol- 
lowing. So he asked, " And what is he to do? " to which Je- 
sus answered, " If I would have him abide till I come again, 
what is that to thee? Only see to it that thou follow me." 

Hence rose a belief among the Christians that this dis- 
ciple would not die. But Jesus had not said this, nor meant 
it. Now this was the disciple who bore his witness in this 
Gospel, and we may rest upon it with perfect trust. 

This appendix is a symbolical presentation of certain 
passages of old Church history, according to the conception 
of the past and future entertained by the writer. To con- 
struct the picture he makes free use of a scene which he 
found described in Luke." 2 The first and fruitless attempts of 
the fishermen represent the preaching of the gospel to the 
Jews. The counsel of the Glorified One to adopt another 
method refers to the preaching to the heathen. So far our 
author agrees with Luke ; but when he emphatically asserts, 
in opposition to him, that the net was not broken, he means 
to insist upon the unity and all-embracing communion of the 
faithful in the Catholic Church. The number of the fishes 
must refer in some way either to this Church itself or else to 
the different kinds or races of men to be taken into it. In 
the conversation with Peter, which follows, we find the dis- 
graced disciple not only restored to his former rank and 
honor, but appointed chief shepherd of the flock till he glo- 
rifies God by a martyr's death. But what is intended by the 
beloved and trusted disciple "remaining," to which the whole 
scene is so obviously meant to lead up ? And who is this 
disciple ? 

1 Compare p. 420. 2 See pp. 128, 129. 



668 DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 

To begin with, the whole story, including the final sa3 T ing 
of Jesus, is of course invented ; and the author introduces a 
supposed misunderstanding of the saying for the express 
purpose of indicating that the words must really be taken in 
a spiritual sense. But curiously enough, by pretending that 
this misunderstanding existed, he really gave it currency. 
After 200 a.d. it was generally supposed that the ''disciple 
whom Jesus loved " was John, after whom accordingly the 
Fourth Gospel was named ; and the tradition arose that he 
had never died ! Thus, in the works of Augustine (400 a.d.) 
and later writers, we hear that John, after living in Ephesus 
to a very old age, feeling that his time was drawing near, lay 
down while alive in his grave, — where the ground still gently 
heaves in response to his breathing, and where he awaits the 
return of his Lord and friend. We may well doubt, however, 
whether John is realty meant at all by the "-disciple whom 
Jesus loved." At any rate the true historical John — that 
narrow and violent Apostle, one of the two " sons of thun- 
der," one of the three "pillars" of the community of Jerusa- 
lem * — cannot be intended. We should be more inclined to 
think of Paul, were it not for the total absence of an}' refer- 
ence to the circumstances of his life, and of any citations 
from his letters either in the "witness" itself borne b}* the 
disciple whom Jesus loved, or in the references made to his 
person. 2 No doubt we have realty to do with an ideal dis- 
ciple : if with John, then with a John so changed, enlight- 
ened, and purified as to be no longer recognizable ; in short, 
with such a disciple as Jesus never had in his lifetime, — one 
who lived in the closest communion with him, divined his 
thoughts, profited to the utmost by his intercourse with him ; 
one who thereby earned his unqualified confidence and ap- 
proval, and now comes forward to bear witness to what he 
had seen in Jesus and what he had received from him. 

Now when we are told that this disciple is to " remain " 
while Peter is to pass awa} T , the meaning is that the latter, 
whose supremacy over the apostolic communities is not dis- 
puted, who is readily acknowledged as the highest guide of 
the Church, is only to retain his authority during his life ; 
whereas the disciple who read into the soul of Jesus will re- 
tain his influence till the perfecting of the kingdom of God. 
Or again, since the name of Peter, as well as that of the 
other disciple, stands for a principle, we may take the saying 

1 See pp. 548, 583, 181, 192. 

2 John xiii. 23, xix. 26, xviii. 15, xx. 2, 3, 8. 



DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 669 

of Jesus to mean that the Church of Peter, the Catholic 
Church, as it began to establish itself towards the middle of 
the second century, had an indisputable right of existence, 
but }~et only for a time. It must ultimately be superseded by 
a better state of things, which should endure, by a purer in- 
sight on the part of the communit}', lyy such an attitude of 
mind as is indicated in the Fourth Gospel, which must " abide" 
to tjie end of the ages. Thus Christianity might completely 
escape from the conflict of parties, not by concession and 
compromise, but by rising above both parties alike to a purer 
insight into the truth ; might receive the fullest compensation 
for the disappointed expectation, not bj T covering it up and 
forgetting it, but by securing the actual experience of the 
Lord's presence in that of the Holy Spirit. Testimony to a 
faith with such contents and of such purport as this would 
retain its power unweakened and unabated till the perfect 
order of things should come. 

Let us now take into our hands this testimony of the disci- 
ple whom Jesus loved. It is the Fourth Gospel. 

" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with 
God, and the Word was God. By the Word all things were 
formed, and every thing was made what it is. To mankind 
It was the higher life and the light of truth ; but the sinful 
world rejected It." * We cannot fail to be struck by the ex- 
alted style of this introduction ; but do we understand its 
meaning ? 

We must return to a consideration of the Alexandrian phi- 
losophy. 2 The central conception of this philosophy hinges 
upon the contrast between two worlds, a higher and a lower : 
the former an invisible and imperishable world of the spirit, 
or of veritably existing ideal types ; the latter the visible and 
perishable world of matter in which we live, an imperfect 
copy or impression of the other. The higher world was an 
immediate emanation from the Deity, his perfect revelation, 
his living type or image, and at the same time the mediator 
between him and our lower world. For God himself was 
conceived of as too exalted to stand in any immediate rela- 
tions with imperfect or material things such as man and the 
universe ; far less could any human representations or expres- 
sions be worthily applied to Him. So these philosophers 
took up and elaborated the poetical personification of Wisdom 
which they found in the book of Job, in the Proverbs, 3 and in 

1 John i. 1-5. 2 s e e pp . 649, 650. 

s See vol. ii. pp. 315, 316, 466, 568. 



670 DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 

the apocryphal books of Jesus Sirach and Wisdom of Solo- 
mon ; but they no longer used the old word Wisdom to signify 
this ideal universe, which they now called the Logos. This 
word means both the unuttered conception of reason and the 
uttered conception of speech , and is commonly translated by 
Word. Had not the Deit}^ called every thing into being by 
his word ? 1 Gradually this word came to be regarded as a 
personal being existing by the side of God ; not self-existent 
and original as He, but spiritually put forth hj the exalted 
God out of his own being, and made the partner of his attri- 
butes, — a kind of subordinate god in fact. Now these are 
the speculations which the fourth Evangelist adopts and ap- 
plies to Jesus. In order adequately to explain and repro- 
duce the impression he had received of Jesus he says : " The 
Word became flesh [that is to sa} T , Jesus was the Word in 
the material bod} 1 - of a man] ; in him might we see the di- 
vine glory, from him might we receive in inexhaustible abun- 
dance the treasures of divine grace and truth, unknown before 
Jesus Christ, — unknown even in the Law of Moses. For 
God is concealed eternally from his creatures, inaccessible 
and unfathomable to them ; but the Word, his own Son, who 
dwelt with Him in heaven in unbroken and full communion 
with Him, has come down to earth and revealed Him." 2 

If we look back from the position we have now reached 
upon the life and work of Jesus, what a marvellous flight we 
have to note ! That life produced a Messianic movement on 
a very modest scale, which shrank from any noisj- self-asser- 
tion, and was confined to the people of the Jews ; nay, even 
to the land of Galilee, for no sooner had it shown itself in the 
capital than it was crushed. And yet this obscure movement 
in the bosom of Judaism, simply because the pure and ex- 
alted personality of Jesus was at the centre of it, called into 
existence the Christian Church, one of the mightiest factors 
of the world's history. Nor was even this enough. The 
coming of Jesus was at last regarded as the turning point in 
the histor} T of the universe, na} x , in the history of the Deity 
himself ! But when we examine all this more closely it need 
not surprise us. When Jesus was gone, those who. had 
known him personally insensibly surrounded him with a glory 
that shone at last with a more than human splendor. The 
spiritual blessings which flowed in ever rich measure from his 
person and his gospel compelled the Christians to exalt him 
ever more and more. The title of Son of God, which his fol- 

i See vol. i. pp. 35, 40, 293. 2 John i. 14, 16-18. 



DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 671 

lowers had given him as the future Messiah, was elastic and 
ambiguous enough to leud itself very readily to this process. 
The idea of his being the Messiah now no longer sufficed ; he 
was somethiug other and something far more than the Jewish 
Messiah. The philosophy and theology of the da} T were laid 
under contribution ; and nothing could so well indicate his 
significance for all humanity, and his unapproachable exalta- 
tion .as the idea that he was the Word, the partner of the di- 
vine nature, and yet not the Deity himself. 

Paul has prepared us for the doctrine of the Logos. Iq 
declaring Jesus to be a second Adam, he ascribed to him a 
pre-existence in heaven as the ideal man, and assigned him 
a share both in the work of creation and in the history of the 
world. But the transition from the early Christian concep- 
tion to that of the Fourth Gospel is most clearly traceable in 
the Epistles to the Hebrews and the Colossians. For there 
Jesus Christ is called the reflection of the Deity, and the 
maker and sustainer of all that exists in heaven and upon 
earth. This is little short of saying that the eternal Word 
appeared in bodily shape in the person of Jesus. But in 
passing to the Fourth Gospel we find not only a great devel- 
opment of these germs that are already present, but also a 
marked change of fundamental conception. Paul looked on 
the earthly life of Jesus as a humiliation, and laid exclusive 
emphasis upon his death on the cross and his exaltation. 
The Fourth Gospel, on the other hand, regards all the life 
of Jesus as forming a single whole, — one continuous mani- 
festation in word and deed of the Logos and its divine glory. 
In this life the Deity — not the supreme God indeed, for that 
was impossible, but His express image — had not only dwelt 
among men, but had actually entered into the collective con- 
ditions of humanity, assumed its nature, and accepted its his- 
torical context. A man was there who could say, " I and 
the Father are one." x 

This exalted conception gave occasion to the rise of the 
doctrine of the Trinity, and in it therefore the Alexandrian 
philosophy thenceforth dominated the whole doctrinal develop- 
ment of Christianity. And, moreover, it solved the several 
contradictions that existed within the apostolic communities. 
The fourth Evangelist has already passed far be} r ond the 
conflict between Judaism and Paulinism. He adopts a very 
hostile tone towards Judaism, and for him the Jewish religion 
no longer exists. His Christ and his Christians look upon 

1 John x. 30. 



672 DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 

the "Law of the Jews" and the "Feasts of the Jews" as 
things with which the}* have no concern, and hold Jerusalem 
and Gerizim to be alike superseded as places of worship. 
The Evangelist's great purpose, indeed, is to display the 
spiritual nature of Christianity ; and he himself has risen 
completely above both the material Messianic expectation 
and the disappointment caused bj- its failure. The Christian 
community, in his conception, is far indeed from being de- 
fenceless and desolate, — bereft of her Lord and Head ; for 
with the coming of his substitute and successor, the Spirit of 
truth, Christ has in realh~y returned alreadj* to his faithful 
ones. In this Holy Spirit the Christ himself dwells as it 
were in the hearts of the faithful, and reveals his presence, 
his truth, his glory in the free, strong growth of their per- 
sonal life of faith. If Christ is thus present in the hearts 
that love him, then his return in the flesh can be thought of 
no more ; if his Church is thus filled with his divine being, 
then the kingdom of God is already invisibly present on 
earth. The chasm between the present age and the age to 
come, preluded by the last judgment, is filled in ; the faithful 
alread}' possess and enjoy, here and now, the life eternal, or 
the fullest blessedness ; the judgment is ever going on in the 
sifting of man from man by the word or the spirit of Jesus. 

Not that the Evangelist thinks all conflict is over. On the 
contrary he perceives it eveiy where. God and the devil, 
God and the world, spirit and matter, spirit and flesh, light 
and darkness stand over against each other. -'The Word 
was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the 
world knew him not. He came to his own people [Israel] 
and his own people received him not. But as many as re- 
ceived him to them he gave power to become children of 
God." - The world is in a certain sense the kingdom of Sa- 
tan ; but Christ has come to deliver man out of his power 
and to conquer him. Mankind are therefore severed into two 
camps, as children of light and children of darkness, children 
of truth and children of falsehood, children of God and chil- 
dren of the devil. Nay, so sharply is the line drawn between 
these two that it almost seems as though the latter were of a 
different nature from the former, and had not the power to 
believe and be saved. Again, this Evangelist adopts a very 
special attitude towards the questions of his time, — the 
movements within the Church and the heresy without it. In- 
deed, he claims *o be the first who had fully comprehended 

1 John i. 10-12. 



DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 673 

and proclaimed the spirit of Jesus in its full significance and 
exaltation ; so that we almost suspect that the appendix al- 
ready described imay perhaps be from his own hand after all, 
with the exception of the last verse, which is certainly not 
authentic. In an}* case, this appendix echoes the conception 
of the Gospel itself in declaring that Peter must make way 
for the " disciple whom Jesus loved," and that that disciple 
must abide. 

The Evangelist's object is not to relate the history of Jesus, 
but to raise the testimony of faith. Apparently he had access 
to no trustworthy traditions except those contained in the 
Synoptic Gospels ; but he uses his materials with the utmost 
freedom, selecting what suits his purpose, and remodelling or 
even inventing whatever he requires. Sometimes he assumes 
the narratives of the other Evangelists as already known ; 
sometimes he is in flat opposition to them. Sometimes he 
disguises well known historical personalities, such as John 
the Baptist, past all recognition ; sometimes he invents fic- 
titious ones, such as Nicodemus. But the essential truth of 
his representation, in a higher than the historical sense, is 
above all doubt ; and he has given us a spiritual Gospel in 
which, according to his own express indications, the miracles 
themselves, which far transcend those of the first three Gos- 
pels, have also a spiritual significance. Thus he displays to 
all men the glory of the Word while abiding on the earth ; a 
divine glory which utterly precludes all conception of the 
Christ having developed after the fashion of a man in knowl- 
edge and sanctity, or struggled with the temptation to sin ; a 
glory, on the other hand, which shines as a more than earthly 
lustre in that struggle against Judaism, ever more and more 
desperate, and in that free endurance of outward shame in 
the death upon the cross. This glory the Evangelist himself 
had seen ; from this fulness he had received the highest gifts 
of grace and the purest insight into the truth. He had rested 
on the bosom of his Lord ; his witness is true, and he him- 
self knows it ; for he is the disciple whom Jesus loved. 

Let us hear from his lips how he first found Jesus. 

There was a certain man called John, who was sent before 
b}* God to bear witness to all men of the Light, and who pro- 
claimed his pre-existence and his lofty rank. Now the Jews 
sent a deputation of certain Pharisaic priests and Levites 
from Jerusalem to ask this John whether he was the Christ, 
or Eiias, or the prophet foretold by Moses ; and when he said 
vol. in. 29 



674 DISCIPLE WHOM TESUS LOVED. 

that he was none of these, but was that preparer of the way 
of whom Isaiah spoke, then they asked him why he baptized. 
On this he pointed to the great Unknown, who was on the 
point of coming forward. The next day he saw Jesus him- 
self approaching, and, with his thoughts fixed on the redeem- 
ing power of his death on the cross, he called him the lamb 
ordained by God, that took aw r ay the sins of mankind. 1 Then 
he told how he himself had learned to know him, having come 
to baptize with water, as the herald of one whom at first he 
knew not but whom he had since found ; for He who sent him 
had said, u Upon whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit de- 
scend and abide, he it is w r ho baptizes with the Holy Spirit." 
And he had seen the Spirit like a dove come down upon Jesus 
out of heaven and depart from him no more ; wherefore he 
knew for certain and thenceforth bore witness that he was the 
Son of God. Upon what occasion it was that John saw this 
descent of the Spirit we are not told ; but there is no mention 
of Jesus being baptized, for such a thing would not be seemly 
for the Word made flesh. 

Again, on the following day, he saw Jesus passing by, and 
pointed him out to two of his disciples who were with him, as 
the lamb given by God. So when these two heard the words 
of John the}* went and followed Jesus reverently, and he 
turned round and asked them what they would. In reply 
the}* asked him where was his abode, for if they might they 
would fain stay that evening with him. " Come and see ! " 
replied Jesus. And the}* remained with him the rest of the 
day, through hours never to be forgotten. Now one of these 
two was Andrew of Bethsaida, and he went first and found 
his brother Simon, to tell him the joyful news, "We have 
found the Messiah ! " Then he brought Simon to Jesus, who 
knew him and penetrated to his very heart as soon as he saw 
him. " Thou art Simon," he said, " the son of Jona. Thou 
shalt be called Cephas." 

The next day, before he left Persea, where all this had 
taken place, to go to Galilee, Jesus found Philip, a fellow- 
townsman of Andrew and Peter, and called him to be his 
follower. Philip, in his turn, went to Nathanael and told 
him the joyful tidings : "We have found him of whom the 
lawgiver and the prophets wrote, Jesus the son of Joseph, of 
Nazareth." " Can any thing good come out of Nazareth?" 
asked Nathanael, in doubt. But, nevertheless, he went with 
his friend. When Jesus saw him approaching, he said : 
i See vol. ii. pp. 421, 422. 



DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 675 

" This is indeed an Israelite without guile. " " Whence dost 
thou know me?" asked Nathanael, in surprise; on which 
Jesus answered, " Before Philip called you, as you sat under 
the fig-tree, I saw you ; " and at this token of superhuman 
knowledge, Nathanael cried enthusiastically, "Rabbi! thou 
art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel ! " But 
Jesus promised him other and more glorious proofs of his 
greatness: " Verity, verily, I say unto j'ou, you shall see 
heaven opened and God's angels ascending and descending 
on the Son of man," — for Jacob's dream of the immediate 
and uninterrupted communication between heaven and earth 
should be realized in the person of Jesus. 

Again, in later chiys, John bore witness to Jesus ; for he 
had now returned with his disciples from Galilee to Judaea 
where he, or rather they, baptized the people. Now John 
was also baptizing not far from the same place, and on a cer- 
tain occasion his disciples came to him and complained that 
Jesus was drawing all men to him. But John rebuked 
their complaint ; for he had never given himself out as the 
Christ, but only as his herald, and now he felt nothing but 
joy in the growing influence of his superior. " He must 
increase, but I must decrease," he said. The Word made 
flesh was from heaven, transcended all men, and spoke the 
words of God. "The Father loves the Son, and has given 
all things into his power. He who believes in the Son has 
everlasting life ; but he who rejects him loses that life, and 
remains under the wrath of God." 

Here let us pause for a moment. How completely persons, 
things, and circumstances are transformed ! But throughout 
our treatment of this Gospel we shall regard it as superfluous 
to fix attention on the astonishing difference between it and 
the others, nor should we have stopped at this point except 
to ask a special question : Who is this Nathanael ? He is 
unknown to us from other sources, and his name never 
occurs again even in this Gospel, except in the appendix. 
This is rather strange, for in the description of these first 
meetings a prominent position is obviously assigned to him ; 
nay, the celebrated declaration of Peter is laid upon his lips, 
so that he quite overshadows that Apostle. 1 We should cer- 
tainly have expected to hear more of him. Can he be in- 
tended for the disciple whom Jesus loved ? Scarcely, for we 
must probably identify this ideal disciple with the unnamed 
companion of Andrew, who first came to Jesus in that 
1 See p. 313. 



676 DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 

moment never to be forgotten. Nathanael has been variously 
identified with Matthew, Matthias, and Bartholomew, but on 
very inadequate girmnds, and there is not the smallest 
necessity to make him one of the Twelve at all. Can he be 
intended for Paul? Remember that Paul, though an Israel- 
ite without guile, was at first completely dominated by his 
prejudices ; that while he still sat under the barren fig-tree of 
Israel's legal religion he was already singled out by the Lord 
and chosen to be an Apostle ; and lastly that his conversion 
had been previously brought into connection with the preach- 
ing of Philip (the evangelist), in a hostile sense. 1 But after 
all the question must remain unanswered ; and perhaps Na- 
than ael is no historical personage at all, but a free creation 
of our writer. 

What has the disciple whom Jesus loved to tell us of the 
gioiy manifested in word and deed by the Son of God? 

His first sign, performed at Cana of Galilee, was to turn 
water into wine ; for he gave and gives the life of the spirit 
in the place of lifeless forms. 2 His second might} 7 deed was 
of like purport, but more aggressive in its character. It 
was the cleansing of the Temple at Jerusalem on the day of 
the Jewish Passover. 3 This took place after he had made a 
short sta} T with relatives and disciples at Capernaum. When 
the Jews demanded a miracle from him as a proof of his 
commission, he answered: " Destroy this temple, and in 
three days I will raise it up." The Jews understood the 
answer literally ; and indeed throughout this Gospel almost 
every one misunderstands Jesus, from a total lack of spirit- 
ual perception. Jesus, sa}~s the Evangelist, really meant his 
body b} T the temple. But we must observe that our author 
sometimes attaches a double significance to an expression, 
and that here he means to say that Jesus intended to speak 
of his own resurrection, and also of the building up of his 
spiritual bod} 7 , the community of the faithful, when this Jew- 
ish religion has been destroyed by the Jews themselves. 

Many of the people of Jerusalem, when the} T saw his signs, 
believed in him ; but Jesus, who could read the heart, trusted 
them not. On a certain evening there came a Pharisaic 
councillor to him, called Mcodemus, and declared his belief 
in him as a teacher come from God. Jesus said, in response, 
that no one could enter into the kingdom of God unless he 
was born from on high, from the spirit. Nicodemus did not in 

i See pp. 4v0, 520, 617 2 See p. 233. » See pp. 365, 366. 



DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 677 

the least comprehend him ; but what Jesus was realty speak- 
ing of was the necesshVy for carnal man to receive the higher 
principle of Lfe from above, the life from God. "God so 
loved mankind that he gave his onty begotten Son, that who- 
soever had faith in him might be saved from destruction and 
possess eternal life. For he was not sent into the world to 
condemn mankind, but to save them. Whoever has faith in 
him cannot be condemned ; but whoever has not faith is con- 
demned already b} T his disbelief in God's Only-begotten. 
This is the Messianic judgment : that the Light has come 
into the world, and that men have chosen darkness rather 
than light because their works are evil. Every one whose 
work is evil hates the light and flees from it, because it would 
rebuke his works. But he who deals truly seeks the light, 
that his works may be seen to be done in God." 

A counterpart to this interview with the celebrated teacher 
of Israel is found in a conversation with a Samaritan woman. 
When the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized 
more disciples than John, Jesus went back from Judaea to 
Galilee. On his way through Samaria he sat down in the 
heat of the day, wearied, b}^ Jacob's well, near Sychar 
(Shechem), while his disciples went into the city to buy 
food. Meanwhile there came a woman to draw water ; Jesus 
asked her to let him drink, and this request, as coming from 
a Jew, astonished her beyond measure. 1 Then he spoke to 
her of the living water which he could give ; by which he 
meant the divine truth which satisfies all the wants of the 
soul and becomes an active, indestructible principle of life 
within. The woman no more understood him than Nico- 
demus had done. So Jesus said she must go and call her 
husband, — and j 7 et she had no husband. She had had five 
husbands before, and the one she now had was not her hus- 
band. [From this we gather that the woman is a personi- 
fication of the people of Samaria, which had formerly wor- 
shipped five gods and now served the Lord, who was not the 
real national deity of Samaria but of Israel.] The woman 
now saw that she was speaking to a prophet, and therefore 
asked Jesus whether the Samaritans who made Gerizim the 
true place of worship, or the Jews who made it Jerusalem, 
were right. He answered that thenceforth it was neither 
Gerizim nor Jerusalem. The Samaritans indeed were not 
on a par with the Jews, but the true worship was confined to 
uo place and limited by no external conditions ; for it wa3 
l See vol ii. pp. 452 ff. ; also pp. 192, 299, 300, of this volume. 



678 DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 

spiritual, even as God was spirit. Finally he made himseli 
known as the Christ. 

Upon this his disciples returned, and while the woman was 
gone to the city, eagerly to recount all that had taken place, 
they offered him food. But he refused. He was too much 
absorbed in his life-work to eat any thing. This they could 
not understand ; but he declared that his food was to do the 
will of Him that sent him and to finish His work. He had 
sowed seed, and behold the harvest- time had come alread} 7 . 
It was the special task of his disciples to gather in the har- 
vest. 1 And in truth it appeared in the course of a two-days' 
staj T in this city that not a few Samaritans believed in him on 
the strength of what the woman had said, and many more 
yet when they heard him themselves. And this was what 
was needed, — not to believe on the authority of another, 
but to hear and know at first hand that Jesus was in truth 
the Saviour of mankind. 

On the other hand in Galilee, his native place, they only 
received him because of the signs which the pilgrims of Jeru- 
salem had seen him perform. An officer of Capernaum, 
whose son was lying on his death-bed, came to him at Cana 
to implore his aid, and although it grieved Jesus much that 
any one should believe in him simply because of his miracles 
and not because of the truth he preached, or his own spiritual 
greatness, nevertheless he spoke the word of might ; and at 
that very moment the boy, though lying in bed at eight leagues' 
distance, was healed.* 2 

These scenes are especially intended to show the nature 
of true faith. 

Jesus went about, bringing to mankind deliverance, truth, 
and fife. But ever} 7 where he was met b} T spiritual incapa- 
city, by worldliness, by hostility, which swelled at last into 
murderous violence. 

Again there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went to 
Jerusalem. On a Sabbath day he came to the bath of Be- 
thesda, that is " House of Compassion," near the Sheep-gate. 
In the five porticoes of this bath there laj T a host of afflicted 
beings, such as the blind, the maimed, the crippled. Now 
and then the water was stirred from below, and any one who 
leaped into the bath at that moment was healed. Here Jesus 
found a man who had been disabled for eight-and-thirt}^ years, 
and said to him, "Do you wish to be healed?" "Alas!" 
i See pp. 514 ff. 2 See pp. 287, 308, 309. 



DISCIPLE WHOM .JESUS LOVED. 679 

he answered in despair, " I have no one to plunge me into the 
bath when the water bubbles up ; and as I creep on some 
other is before me." " Arise ! take up 3'our bed and walk ! " 
cried Jesus, and the sufferer obe3 T ed and was healed. In 
truth he heals the sick ; he gives power to the spiritually crip- 
pled to rise up and walk upon the path of God's command- 
ments, if only they are not stubborn but have faith in him. 

Now when the Jews came upon the restored sufferer, carry- 
ing his bed, they rebuked him for breaking the Sabbath. He 
appealed to the injunction of his benefactor ; but at first he 
could not tell them who it was. Afterwards Jesus met him 
in the temple and exhorted him to sin no more. Then the 
man directed the Jews to Jesus, upon whom all their rage 
now turned because he had desecrated the clay of the Lord ; 
but Jesus appealed to his Father, who never paused in his 
works of beneficence on the clay of rest. After this they 
sought to kill him all the more because he had likened him- 
self to God, as his Father. But Jesus went on, untroubled 
by their rage, and said that eveiy thing he did was after the 
pattern of his Father's works and in His might ; even as his 
Father, so did he too wake life out of death ; na} T , the Father 
had appointed him as judge in order that he might receive 
from all men the same honor as the Father. John, the Father 
himself, the Scriptures, — which the Jews regarded with a rev- 
erence that was even excessive, — all bore witness to him. 
In vain ! They were still without faith. Their own Law 
would itself convince and condemn them of unbelief. 

When he had returned to Galilee he fed the multitudes 
miraculously, and thus showed his power of amply providing 
for the wants of countless hosts with the scantiest means, and 
when every one was wholly at a loss. 1 The beholders ac- 
knowledged him as the great prophet, and wanted to make 
him King ; but he withdrew to the mountain, and presently, 
walking in the night over the stornry waves, he rejoined his 
disciples, who had crossed in the boat to Capernaum. 2 Great 
was the amazement of the people when they found him there. 
He rebuked them because it was not for the imperishable 
bread of the soul that they followed him : he was himself 
the bread of life that had come down from heaven. Now to 
the Jews he was only the son of Joseph, and therefore they 
did not believe these words. But none the less were they the 
truth ; and all who would possess eternal life must take his 
spirit and his life, mcst take him, as it were, himself, into 
l See pp. 143 ff 2 See pp. 2G8, 269. 



680 DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 

themselves : and all this is S3'mbolized in the bread and wine 
eaten at the Lord's Supper. By this discourse many of his 
disciples, who took every thing literally, were repelled, and 
therefore they forsook him. Then he said to the Twelve : 
' ' You will not forsake me likewise ? " Upon which Peter ex- 
claimed, " Lord ! to whom should we go? Thou hast words 
of eternal life, and we believe and know that thou art the Holy 
One of God." A glorious confession ! But alas ! that one 
of these chosen ones should be a devil. Jesus knew it and 
said it, for he recognized his betrayer from the first. 

Exposed to murderous attacks in Judaea, Jesus remained 
in Galilee till the Feast of Tabernacles. His brothers, who 
did not believe in him, urged him to go to Jerusalem, to show 
himself to all men. He refused, but subsequently went up 
secretry. The multitude was much divided in disposition 
towards him ; and presently when he taught in the temple 1 
every one was amazed. No one dared to lay hands upon him, 
and even the officers of justice sent to seize him returned 
without doing any thing. But the high priests and Pharisees 
who had sent them were all the more exasperated, and would 
not so much as listen to Nicodemus, who raised a feeble pro- 
test in his favor. 

Meanwhile Jesus went on teaching, promised life to who- 
soever would receive him, proclaimed himself the light of 
the world, warned the stubborn of death in their sins, and 
promised his faithful followers the knowledge of the truth 
and in it the enjoyment of true moral liberty. " He who com- 
mits sin is a slave. If the son make 3'ou free, then shall you 
be free indeed." The Jews were not free, nor were they Abra- 
ham's children, for in that case the} T would do the works of 
Abraham ; rather were they children of the devil, and that 
was wiry they would not listen to the teaching of Jesus, but 
sought to kill him, though he had come forth from God and 
was exalted above all men, and delivered his own from death 
for ever. 

Yes ! he was indeed the light of mankind, as he soon 
proved. When he left the temple, to escape being stoned, 
he passed a man who had been born blind, and who sat beg- 
ging. His disciples asked him whether this punishment had 
come upon the man for his own sins, or for those of his par- 
ents. Jesus combated their superstitious idea altogether, 
and explained that, in the course of his own unwearied labors 
throughout the whole day of life, this poor sufferer's very in- 
i Seep. 176. 



DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 681 

firmity was to become a means of displaying God's redeeming 
love. Then he made some salve with spittle, anointed the 
blind man's eyes with it, and ordered him to go and bathe in 
the pool of Siloain. No sooner had he done so than he 
gained his sight. His neighbors were filled with amazement, 
and could not believe their eyes till he told them how it had 
come about. He was brought before the Pharisees, who re- 
newed their strictures on Jesus for again performing a cure 
on the Sabbath. The man's parents were now summoned ; 
but, since they knew the authorities had determined to lay 
any one who acknowledged Jesus as the Christ under the ban 
of the synagogue, the}' would commit themselves to nothing 
beyond the statement that their son was born blind, and 
would give no opinion as to how he had been healed. On 
this the man himself was examined again ; but, however hard 
the}' pressed him, he continued stoutly to maintain that his 
benefactor was a prophet sent by God, whereupon he was 
cast out with contumely. When Jesus heard of this he went 
and found him, and asked: " Do you believe in the Son of 
God?" " Lord ! do but tell me who he is, and I am ready," 
answered he. Then Jesus made himself known, and received 
his homage. Such, then, is the result of his labors : by the 
light which he makes arise in the moral world the simple and 
the ignorant have their eyes opened to the truth, — to the 
highest good of man ; but the learned and the wise reject 
his guidance in their self-conceit, and so become blind to the 
truth, and cast out those that Jesus has delivered ! 

Jesus is the good shepherd. His sheep, the children of 
God, listen to his voice, follow him, are saved and blessed 
with abundance of all things needful to them. Israel's lead- 
ers on the other hand are all thieves and robbers, or at best 
faithless hirelings, who flee from the beasts of prey and leave 
the flock to its fate. The good shepherd offers up his life for 
his flock ; and Jesus offers up his life for his own, whether 
Israelites or heathen, who must all be one flock under one 
shepherd. And if he offers himself up for them, that same 
moral force which enables him to surrender his life gives him 
power also to seize the higher life even out of death. 

Again, in the temple, at the Feast of Lights, 1 after the 
unbelievers had taunted him in vain, he spoke of his care for 
the sheep which no power in the world could pluck out of 
his own or his Father's hand, for he and the Father were one. 
For this saying the Jews were ready to stone him as a blas- 

i See vol. ii. pp. 565, 566. 

29* 



682 DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 

phemer. But Jesus showed them there was no blasphemy in 
his words, and shielded himself from their violence by retreat- 
ing into the Transjordanic regions, where many who were 
mindful of the preaching of John believed in him. 

The conflict had now reached such a point that the crisis 
oould not be long dela} T ed. Let us see what brought it about. 

At Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, lived a brother and 
two sisters who were very dear to Jesus. They were Lazarus, 
Mary, who anointed the Lord and wiped his feet with her 
hair, and Martha. 1 It was from the sisters that Jesus heard, 
while still in Penea, that his friend Lazarus was ill. " This 
sickness will not result in death, but in the glorifying of God 
in His Son," said Jesus, and stayed two days where he was. 
Then he said to his disciples, " Let us go to Judaea again ! " 
They were afraid of his being stoned by the Jews ; but he told 
them that if the duration of each one's day of life is unalter- 
ably fixed, he who treads his path by the daylight of truth has 
nought to fear. He only who walks in the night of sin need 
fear. He told them also that Lazarus slept the sleep of death, 
from which he was about to wake him to increase their faith. 
" Let us go too," said Thomas, " and die with our Master." 

When they reached Bethany Lazarus had already been 
buried four da} r s, and many Jews of Jerusalem had come to 
condole with the sisters. When Martha heard that Jesus 
was coming she went and met him outside the village. " O 
my Lord ! " she cried, "hadst thou been here my brother 
would not have died. But, even now, I know that God 
will grant whatever thou maj-est ask Him." u Your brother 
shall rise again," answered Jesus. " Yes, on the last day ! " 
sobbed Martha. But Jesus meant something very different. 
" I am the resurrection and the life," he went on, " and who- 
soever believes in me, though he be dead, shall }-et live ; and 
whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Believest 
thou this ? " Then Martha confessed him to be the Son of 
God, and went away to call out Mary secretly. Mary rose 
at once, and her visitors, who thought she was going to the 
grave, followed her. She threw herself down before Jesus 
with the same expostulation which her sister had made. 
When he saw all these mourners Jesus was deeply moved, 
and asked for the tomb. "Come and see it, Lord," they 
answered. Jesus wept. "Roll away the stone," he said, 
when he stood beside the tomb. 2 " Lord ! the body is already 

1 See pp 387, 388, 405, 406, 186, 187, 205, 206. 2 See pp. 459, 460, 473. 



DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 683 

decaying," objected Martha ; but Jesus rebuked her want of 
faith, and after thanking God aloud, in order that the by- 
standers might have faith in his divine mission, he uttered the 
word of might. , "Lazarus, come forth!" And immediately 
he came forth, with his hands and feet and face swathed 
in the burial clothes. Jesus ordered them to unwrap the 
shroud and free him. [This was the culmination of his mirac- 
ulous power, 1 and shows in a symbol of overwhelming force 
how, as he said to Martha, he gives eternal life to all who 
believe in him ; how he can make man rise from the death of 
sin, from a moral corruption that is even far advanced, into 
that truth of life which develops ever more and more glori- 
ously, and never has an end.] 

Man} 7 of the Jews who witnessed this event believed in 
him, but others went and told it to the Pharisees, who at once 
took counsel with the high priests. They knew not what to 
do. If they let the wonder-worker go his way every one 
would believe in him, and then Roman intervention would 
give things a fatal turn. Caiaphas therefore said, u It is 
better that one man should die for all than that the nation 
should perish." Thus did he prophesy, as high priest for 
that year, that Jesus would die for the people ; nay, for the 
children of God among the heathen also. From this clay 
forward they sought to seize Jesus and put him to death. 
But he withdrew into the city of Ephraim. 

On Monday, six days before the Passover, he was again 
at Bethany, where a meal was provided in his honor at which 
Martha acted as hostess. Lazarus was one of the guests, 
and Mary showed her gratitude by anointing the feet of Jesus 
with spikenard. Thereupon Judas, who held the purse and 
was a thief, reproved her for waste, but Jesus defended her. 2 
Many of the Jews came there to see Jesus and Lazarus, 
and the authorities perceived that decisive measures must be 
taken. The next da} T he rode into Jerusalem upon an ass, 3 
amidst the acclamations of the pilgrims who hailed him as 
the King of Israel, and the multitude who greeted him as the 
raiser of Lazarus. There were certain Greeks in Jerusalem 
who asked Philip to give them access to Jesus, and Jesus 
took this as the foreshadowing of the glory that would be his 
from the faith of the heathen world resulting from his death. 
Just as the grain of corn must rot in the earth before it can 
live again in the heavy-laden ear, so would his death also 

i See p 287. 2 See pp. 40. r ,, 406, 206. 

8 See pp. 360, ff. 



684 DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 

yield a rich harvest. Self-seeking is self-slaying, but to lose 
the life is to preserve it. 1 Then for a moment Jesus was per- 
turbed in spirit, but a voice from heaven, uttered for the sake 
of the people, announced that his prayer that God should be 
glorified was heard. Henceforth Satan was bereft of his 
power over mankind, and Jesus would draw all men to him- 
self in his exaltation on the cross, his exaltation to God. 

On this and the following clays he concealed himself because 
of the stubborn unbelief of the Jews ; even those of the chief 
people who secretly adhered to him dared not openly confess 
it. Yet, whosoever beheld Jesus beheld Him who sent him ; 
and whosoever rejected him would one day be condemned, 
— not by him, for he had only come to save mankind, but 
by the words which he had uttered. 

On Thursday evening Jesus had lain down to meat with his 
disciples for the last time before he should go to the Father. 2 
It was not the Paschal meal. The Passover did not begin 
until the following evening ; for he himself who was the true 
Paschal lamb, and as such made an end of all sacrifices, 3 must 
be put to death at the very day and hour ordained for the 
slaughter of the lamb, — not twenty-four hours later as the 
Synoptic Gospels say. The betrayal by Judas was already 
determined by the devil. But the love of Jesus for his friends 
was now to reach its culmination. He rose from the table, 
in full consciousness of his absolute supremacy and his divine 
origin and destin} T , laid aside his upper garment, girt himself 
with a linen towel, poured some water into the basin, and 
washed his disciples' feet. When it came to Peter's turn he 
remonstrated, for he did not understand what it meant. So 
Jesus said, "Unless I wash you, you have no part in me ;" 
upon which Peter begged him to wash his hands and his head 
also, but Jesus would not, for it was not needful. And now 
they were entirety pure, — all but one. For by thus washing 
their feet, and setting forth symbolically in this servile office 
his ministering love for them, Jesus also meant to indicate 
the cleansing power of his suffering and death ; for it would 
purify them, and all who like them were even now redeemed 
and cleansed by fellowship with Jesus, from the last stains 
of sin which still as it were clung to their feet from their 
contact with a corrupted world. 

When he had finished washing their feet, and had resumed 
his outer garment and taken his place again at the table, he 

i See p. 330. 2 See pp. 407 ff. 

8 See 1 Corinthians v. 7, and p. 649. 



DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 685 

exhorted them all to take to heart the example which he, 
their Lord and Master, had given them, and to serve and 
cleanse one another in humble love. 1 Bat alas ! there was 
one traitor lurking among them ! When Jesus said this, the 
disciple whom he loved, and who lay next to him at table, 
turned his head on the Lord's bosom, at a sign from Peter, 
and asked him secretly who the betrayer was. The Lord 
indicated Judas by a covert sign, and then told Judas himself 
to make haste. The others thought he was telling him, as 
the purse-bearer, to buy something for the approaching Pass- 
over, or give something to the poor ; and so the betrayer 
withdrew in the darkness of the night. Then Jesus spoke of 
being glorified and of going away to a place whither they 
should follow him afterwards ; and he gave them the new 
commandment of Christian brotherly love, according to his 
own example : c ' By this shall all men know that you are 
my disciples, if } T ou have love one to another." 

What follows next in the Fourth Gospel can hardly be 
given in a summaiy. It must be read in its entirety. It 
consists of a moving series of farewell exhortations and a 
not less moving prayer for the disciples. 2 It is here that this 
testimony of faith in Jesus meets us in the fulness of its 
power and its unsurpassed beauty. Here we learn what the 
beloved disciple, who shared the spirit of the Master, found 
in him, — the only way to the Father, the divine truth and 
the higher life in veiy person, the living image of the Father. 
We learn how he regarded his death, — as the entrance upon 
the gloiy which had been laid up for him, as the preparation 
of a place for his loved ones in the Father's house, as the 
indispensable condition of the coming of the Spirit of truth, 
of the full and independent growth in spirit of his disciples. 
We learn the enduring relationship in which he stands to 
Jesus ; it is as his disciple that he henceforth pra} T s to God ; 
it is in his power and by sharing his life that he bears fruit, 
like a branch that is part of the vine ; and he it is who comes 
back to his friends, in the Spirit of truth, and abides with 
them. We learn what he owes to Jesus, — untroubled peace 
of soul, courage to bear witness to the Christ in spite of the 
hatred and persecution of the world, childlike communion 
with the Father without advocate or mediator, confidence in 
victory throughout every conflict. We learn the great purpose 
of the work of Jesus, — to glorify the Father by the higher 
revelation of Him brought to mankind ; to sanctify all the 
1 See p. 414. 2 John xiv.-xvii. 



686 DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 

children of God by this truth, and to bind them b} T the most 
exalted love to one another, to their Saviour, and to their Fa- 
ther, thus making them share the eternal glory of the Son 
and bringing all mankind to acknowledge his mission. This, 
and far more than this, finds full and beauteous expression in 
these chapters. From first to last they are pervaded by a 
tone to which the strings of our hearts vibrate in harmonious 
response. It is the tone of a faith which has left the ancient 
contradictions far behind, or rather far below it, entering into 
a new world which has opened out before it, and in which it 
rests in full contentment as in its proper home. It is the 
tone of a hope which no longer feels or fears the ancient dis- 
appointment, for the very reason that it reaches out towards 
a purely spiritual redemption, which has already gained its 
provisional fulfilment now, and goes to meet the future with 
a joyous confidence. In a word, it is here more than any- 
where else that we find the inward peace, the unshaken trust, 
the beauteous harmony of that Christian mind that comes so 
freely and proudly forth ; of that Christian society that is 
taking shape, as it were, before our veiy eyes. 

In conclusion, let us glance at the account of the glorifi- 
cation of Jesus in suffering, in death, in resurrection ! 

Accompanied by his disciples Jesus left the city, crossed 
the brook of Kiclron, and entered a garden. 1 It was not 
because his soul was dismayed, for that was impossible. It 
was not tO\seek for strength in prayer, for that was not 
needful. But this was the usual place of meeting, and was 
well known as such to Judas, who soon came there with 
Roman soldiers and Jewish retainers, carrying lanterns and 
torches. Jesus was not betra} T ed b} T a kiss as though he 
were a victim, but he surrendered himself up freely, stepping 
forward to meet the band and sa3~ing, w 'Whom seek ye?" 
They answered, " Jesus of Nazareth ;" and when Jesus said, 
" I am he !" they fell down upon the earth. Jesus, on his 
side, took care to provide for the unmolested departure of 
his disciples, and rebuked Peter, who had cut off the right 
ear of Malchus, a servant of the high priest. Should he 
not drink the cup of suffering which his Father gave him ? 

He was carried in bonds first to Annas, then to Caiaphas. 2 

While Peter denied him, as he had foretold, he was being 

tried. When questioned as to his followers and his teaching, 

he referred to his hearers for an answer, saying that he had 

i See pp. 419 ff. 2 See op. 423 ff. 



DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 687 

never taught in secret, but had spoken freely iu synagogue 
and temple. For that answer one of the attendants struck 
him in the face, but the quiet rebuke of Jesus was as calm 
and gentle as ever. 

Early in the morning he w^as taken from Caiaphas to the 
palace of the governor. 1 The accusers remained outside for 
fear of becoming unclean and unfit to eat the Passover in the 
evening, b} r treading the floor of the heathen. So Pilate 
came out to them and asked of what they accused the prisoner. 
But they abruptly and haughtily declined to set the accusation 
forth. So Pilate of course said that in that case the}' must 
judge the prisoner themselves in accordance with their own 
Law, and that he had nothing more to do with the matter. 
But they urged that the right of judging in cases of life and 
death had been taken away from them. 

Then the governor went in again, summoned Jesus, and 
said to him, "Are } t ou the King of the Jews?" But Jesus 
put him to shame by answering, ' ' Have }*ou or 3'our subordi- 
nates ever seen it?" " Am I a Jew, then?" retorted Pilate 
proudly. " Your own people and the high priests have given 
you up to me. What is it }"Ou have done? " " My kingdom 
is not of this world [such was the lofty declaration of the 
Lord !] or else nry servants would resist nry surrender to the 
Jews by force of arms. But my kingdom is of a higher than 
earthly rank. " " Then } t ou are a king after all? " answered 
the other. " It is as you say," replied Jesus. " But for this 
end came I into the world, to bring the truth to light. Who- 
ever is a child of the truth listens to me." " What is truth? " 
said Pilate ; and with this sceptic's question on his lips he 
turned away to go to the Jews again. " I cannot find that 
he is guilty of any thing," he said. " But you have a custom 
for me to release a prisoner for you at the Passover. Shall it 
be the King of the Jews?" "Not him, but Barabbas ! " 
shouted they. Now Barabbas was a robber. 

When Jesus had been scourged and mocked, Pilate made 
another attempt to move the Jews. He declared once more 
that Jesus was innocent, brought him out with the crown of 
thorns on his temples and the purple robe on his shoulders, 
and cried, " Behold the man ! " — as much as to say, "There ! 
look at3 T our unhappy victim ! " " Crucify him, crucify him ! " 
shrieked the high priests and their retainers. " Then do it 
yourselves, if you can and dare ; for I will not be driven 
into it, " answered Pilate angrily. " Our Law condemns him 
1 See pp. 437 ff. 



688 DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 

to death, for he has declared himself to be God's 3on, " cried 
they, stating the real ground of accusation at last. " Son 
of a god ! " thought Pilate, " I must look into that. " So he 
went back and said to Jesus, "In very truth whence art 
thou ? " There was no reply. The irritated governor burst 
into a passion, but the calm and lofty bearing of Jesus brought 
him to himself again. Indeed he would have set him at liberty 
there and then, had he not been restrained by an implied threat 
of the Jew r s that they would accuse him before the Emperor 
of siding with rioters. It was towards noon when at last he 
put himself in the seat of judgment, and after a last feeble 
protest condemned Jesus to the cross. 

So he was led out to Golgotha and crucified between two 
others. 1 The high priests protested against the superscrip- 
tion, but in vain. It ran : "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of 
the Jews," and was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, v 
In this last language the initial letters would be I. N. R. I. ; 
and this is wiry we see these letters above the cross in pic- 
tures. The soldiers divided his upper garments by tearing 
them into four shares ; but his under garment was woven in 
a single piece without a seam, like that of the priests ; so for 
it they cast lots. Thus was the Scripture literally fulfilled. 2 
By the cross were standing the mother of Jesus, her sister 
Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mar}^ of Magdala. Now when 
Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved near 
to her, he conferred upon him the lofty task of taking his 
place as her son. "Woman," he said to his mother, "be- 
hold your son ! " and to the disciple, " Behold your mother ! " 
From that time forth the disciple took her to his home. Thus 
by the last expression of his will did the Christ commend and 
intrust his mother — that is the community — to his beloved 
disciple, passing over all the others. 3 Knowing that all the 
predictions of the Scripture were now fulfilled, Jesus said, 
" I thirst." A sponge was dipped into some vinegar that 
stood there and put to his lips on a stick of hyssop. He took 
the refreshing draught, cried out, " Finished ! " bowed down 
his head and gave up the ghost. 

Now the coming Sabbath was also the first day of the 
Passover, and was therefore specially sacred ; and for this 
reason the Jews wished the bodies to be taken down before- 
hand, and obtained the governor's consent that it should be 
so. 4 In such a case the criminals must have their legs broken 

1 See pp. 447 ff. a See vol. ii. p. 310. 

* See pp. 233, 667. 4 Deuteronomy xxi. 22, 23. 



DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 689 

with a crowbar, and must then be dispatched. This was ac- 
cordingly done to the two malefactors, but not to Jesus, for 
he was dead already. He was the true Paschal lamb, and no 
bone of his must be broken, — for so the Scripture ordained. 1 
But one of the soldiers (again in accordance with Scripture 2 ) 
ran a spear into his side and there flowed out blood and 
water, — the symbol of the atonement by his death and the 
purification by his spirit. Such is the veriest truth concern- 
ing the suffering on the cross, made manifest by him who has 
seen it and experienced it, for the strengthening of the faith 
of the Christians ! 

Presently Joseph of Arimathea was assisted in the burial 
by Nicodemus, who brought a hundred pounds of a mixture 
of nryrrh and aloes. The bod} T was carefully swathed in 
cloths, together with these strong spices, according to Jewish 
custom, and then was taken to a garden, close by the place 
of execution, and laid in a tomb that had never before been 
used. The place was chosen because it was so near, and the 
approach of the Sabbath made it needful to hasten. 

But this was not the end. 3 On Sunday morning, while it 
was yet dark, Mary Magdalene went to the garden. There 
she saw the stone rolled away from the cave, and perceived 
at once that the grave was empty. She hurried with the sad 
news to Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved. At once 
the}' both hastened to the spot. Peter was the last to reach 
it, but the first to enter the tomb, where he found the swath- 
ing bands and the napkin for the head laid there clean and in 
due order. When the other saw this he had faith, even before 
the Christ had appeared to any one. Then they went back 
again. 

Meanwhile Mary stayed weeping at the grave. But when 
she bent down to cast a glance at the deserted resting-place, 
she saw through her tears that an angel was sitting where the 
head had lain, and another where the feet had been. And 
the words fell upon her ear: "Woman! why dost thou 
weep?" "Because the} T have taken away my Lord, and I 
know not where they have laid him," she sobbed as she 
turned away. And there stood Jesus himself by her side, 
but she knew him not, and thought he was the keeper of the 
garden. " Woman ! why dost thou weep? Whom dost thou 
seek ? " he asked. " Ah, sir ! " she cried, " if you have borne 
him away, do but tell me where, and 1 will take him." Then 

1 Exodus xii. 46 ; Numbers ix. 12. 2 Zechariab. xii. 10. 

« See pp. 462 ff. 



690 DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 

she heard that never-forgotten voice exclaim : ' ' Mary ! M 
' ' My Master ! " she exclaimed in transport, and turned to 
embrace his knees. But he said: "Touch me not; for 
though I have not yet ascended, tell nry brothers that even 
now I ascend to my Father and their Father, to my God and 
theirs." Mary understood him. The personal relations of 
bygone da} r s had come to an end. She went and told the 
disciples what had happened and what the Lord had said. 

That Sunday evening as they were together, with doors 
closed for fear of the Jews, Jesus suddenlj r stood among 
them. " Peace be to you ! " he said ; and, to remove the pos- 
sibility of doubt, he showed them the marks of the nails and 
the spear in his hands and side. Then he committed to them 
his own mission, — the task which God had given him, — 
breathed the Holy Spirit upon them and gave them power to 
forgive sins. 

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, was not with them that 
evening ; and when the others told him that they had seen 
the Lord, he said he would never believe it unless convinced 
by seeing and touching with his own e}^es and hands. His 
demand was met. A week afterwards they were together in 
the same room, — Thomas with them this time, — and Jesus 
was again in the midst of them, though the doors were shut. 
He gave them his greeting of peace ; and, knowing all things, 
he asked Thomas to put his finger in the wounds of the nails, 
and his hand into his side, and then to renounce his unbelief. 
Convinced that his Master was indeed glorified, Thomas now 
cried, " My Lord and my God ! " " Because thou seest me, 
thou believest," said Jesus ; " but blessed are they who see 
not and yet believe ! " Yes ! That is the true faith, which 
he demands and has a right to demand, — the faith which, 
without an}' material sign, recognizes and confesses him as 
the Prince of Life, who has and who gives eternal life. 

Jesus did many other signs also before the ej-es of his dis- 
ciples ; but those which have now been mentioned are recorded 
so that every one who reads this Gospel may believe that 
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and on the strength of 
that faith may have life eternal in Him who transcends all 
praise. 

The purpose, then, of the disciple whom Jesus loved, in 
bearing his testimony, was to communicate and strengthen 
the faith that wakes to life. It was for this purpose that he 
strove to open out to others the treasures of divine grace and 



DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 691 

truth which he himself had found in the Christ ; so that every 
one, without any outward sign, simply on the ground of the 
glory and the wealth of His spirit, might receive him for His 
own sake. Beyond question the disciple has accomplished 
this purpose in thousands of lives, and his " spiritual Gospel" 
has won thousands of hearts for the Christ. 

As we dose his work, therefore, and ask, "Has he any 
right, to the title he gives himself of the friend who shared 
the spirit of Jesus ? " we cannot hesitate to answer in the 
affirmative. His right is unquestionable. Better than any 
of the early messengers of Christ did he perceive and teach 
the power and worth of Christianity as the new principle of 
human life. His name remains unknown, and we cannot 
therefore so much as look for the traces of his personal in- 
fluence. In this respect, accordingly, we cannot bring him 
into comparison with Paul, or with any of those others of 
whom he makes Christ declare, "Verity, verity, I say unto 
3*ou, whosoever believes in me, the works which I do shall he 
do also ; and yet greater works shall he do, for I go to the 
Father." x But in religious genius he transcends them all by 
the loft}' flight of his spirit, b} T the depth of his feeling, ar*d 
by his exaltation above the strife and the disappointment of 
the apostolic age. 

It is quite another question whether the author of the ap- 
pendix is right in assigning to the disciple whom Jesus loved 
the spiritual guidance of Christianity through the whole course 
of the ages. To this question we must emphatically answer 
" No ! " Not even this disciple fully understood and appre- 
ciated the Master. Not even he exhausted the treasures 
which are offered to us in the life and the gospel of Jesus. 
When we place even him by the side of the Master, we see 
how far he has fallen short of his task. Not even he, there- 
fore, can " abide." It is not only that the form in which he 
presents his thoughts and experiences is too closely connected 
with the philosophy of his age to be permanently available ; 
but his weaknesses are also apparent in the substance of his 
work, and especially in his conception of the world of man 
as divided into the children of God and the children of the 
devil. 

Jesus made no such separation. Even in those who had 
strayed farthest, who had sunk deepest, who had become 
most shamelessty corrupt, he still beheld the very sons and 
daughters of God, — lost indeed but not past finding again, 

1 John xi v. 12. 



692 DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 

degenerate but not past raising up, dead but not past recalling 
to life. His gospel of God's love even to the most insignifi- 
cant, and of the indestructible worth of man, is the great truth 
which is destined to reform the world, to sanctify and perfect 
society, to contend against, mitigate, or remove all moral and 
social miser}', to realize the conception of the kingdom of 
God. The inexhaustible wealth and depth of that principle 
of the right, the worth, the destiny of every several man as a 
child of the heavenly Father is the legacy of Jesus to us and 
to succeeding generations. In our personal life and social 
work it gives us the light of truth ; it gives us strength for 
the battle ; it brings us the encouragement of hope, the secret 
of elastic power, the pledge of triumph. With that gospel, 
made flesh as it were in his person, Jesus still guides the 
development of humanity, and will continue to guide it until 
he has inspired all his brothers with the full consciousness of 
their divine origin and destiny, — and then, to borrow Paul's 
beautiful description of the future, he will give up the king- 
dom to the Father, that God may be all in all. 1 

And this has been strikingly portrayed as the course of 
history by the author of the Fourth Gospel himself, when he 
puts upon the lips of the departing Christ this declaration to 
his disciples : " I have mairy things to say to }~ou, but } T ou 
cannot bear them now. Yet when the Spirit of truth comes 
he will lead you to the whole truth, and will teach you to un- 
derstand how the Kingdom of God must yet develop itself on 
earth. He will glorify me, for he will take from my treasure 
to give to } T ou. All that the Father has is mine." 2 

The disciple whom Jesus loved, however, has reached a 
point of development which not only stands out from that of 
the old Catholic Church as the ideal over against a miserably 
defective reality, but also far transcends any thing which the 
Christianity of to-da\ T as a whole has as yet attained to ; and 
within the New Testament the Fourth Gospel must be re- 
garded as the ripest and fairest fruit of the spirit of Jesus. 

The first epistle of John soon issued from the same school 
in imitation of the Gospel. Listen to the testimony it bears : 
Cw See how great love the Father has shown us, that we should 
be called and should be the children of God ! We shall at 
last be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Whosoever 
cherishes this hope in Him purifies himself even as He is pure. 
For this is love of God, to keep his commandments ; and his 
commandments are not hard. And as for us, we know that 
1 1 Corinthians xv. 24, 28. 2 John xvi. 12-15a. 



DISCIPLE WHOM JESUS LOVED. 



695 



we have passed from death to life, because we love the broth- 
ers." 2 These words, it is true, are not uttered by the writer 
of the Fourth Gospel, but the} 7 are very certainty from the 
" disciple whom Jesus loved." And now if we would hear in 
this disciple's words, as the best interpretation of the Master's 
spirit, the main contents of the Christian faith in God, let us 
listen to three savings, the most beautiful and noble with 
which we can close our '"Bible for Learners." 2 May the}'' 
be to our readers like so many dear and trusted load-stars to 
guide them on the wa}- of life ! 

" The hour cometh, and now is, when the truly devout 
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth ; for such are 
the worshippers the Father seeks. God is Spirit, and they 
who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." 

" This is the message brought to us through the Christ, 
and to you through us, that God is Light, and in him there 
is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship 
with him and } T et walk in the darkness, we are liars. But 
if we walk in the light, like as he is in the light, then we 
have fellowship one with another." 

" Let us love one another; for love is from God, and he 
who loves is born of God, and knows God. He who loves 
not knows not God at all, for God is Love. He who abides 
in love abides in God, and God in him." 

Blessed is he whose heart receives this truth, whose life 
sets a seal upon it ! God is Spirit ! God is Light ! God is 
Love ! And, from the bottom of our hearts, we wish that 
blessing to each one of our readers ! 

i 1 John iii. la, 2b, 3, 14, v. 3. 

2 John iv. 23, 24; 1 John i. 5-7a, iv. 7, 8, 16b. 



CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY, 



CHRONOLOGY 



About 1320. 



ISRAEL. 

The Exodus of the Is- 
raelites from Egypt. 



About 1260. Settlement of the Is- 
raelites in Canaan. 
Period of the Judges. 
Samuel. Schools of 

the Prophets. 
Saul's reign. 
About 1058-1018. David's reign. 
About 1018-978. Solomon's reign. 
978. ' Separation of the Two King- 
doms. 



JUDA. 

978. Rehoboam. 
957. Abijah. 
955. Asa. 



914. Jehoshaphat 



889. Jehoram m 
Athaliah, 
daughter 
of Ahab. 

884. Ahaziah. 

884. Athaliah. 

878. Joash. 



978. 



Israel. 
Jeroboam. 



954. Nadab. 
953. Baasha. 
930. Elah. 
Zimri. 
Omri. Sa- 
maria be- 
comes the 
royal resi- 
dence. 
Ahab. 
The Prophet 
Elijah. 
897. Ahaziah. 
896. Jehoram. 
The Prophet 
Elisha. 

884. Jehu. 



924. 



918 



856. 
840. 



Jehoahaz 
Joash. 



838. Amaziah. 

Joash conquers Juda. 

1 All the dates in the history of Juda and Israel, from Solomon to the battle of 
Carchesium (605), must be regarded as merely approximate. 



PEOPLES STANDING IN CLOSE 
RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL. 



Between 1280 and 1260 b.c. Expe- 
ditions of Ramses III. against 
Canaan. 



Hiram, king of Tyre. 



Shishak, king of Egypt. 



Benhadad I., king of Syria. 



Benhadad II., king of Syria. 
Mesha, king of Moab. 



Hazael, king of Syria. 



Benhadad III., king of Syria. 



CHRONOLOGY 

OP 



OTHER PEOPLES. 



About 1100. The return of the He- 
raclidae. 

1068. Codrus. The last king of 
Athens. 



Lycurgus in Sparta. 
Carthage founded. 



ISRAELITE LITERATURE. 



The "Decalogue" (Ten Com- 
mandments.)'? 



Song of Deborah (Judges v.). 



David's poems (2 Sam. i. 19-27 

and iii. 33, 34.) 
Genesis xlix. 



The "Book of the Covenant" 
(Exodus xxi. 1 — xxiii. 19.). 



&U 



698 



CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



ISRAEL. 



JtDA. 



J.C. 



809. Uzziah. 



758. Jotham. 
741. Ahaz. 

Judah made 
tributary 
to Assyria. 



725. Hezekiah. 



Israel. 

B.C. 

823. Jeroboam II. 
Most flour- 
ishing pe- 
riod of the 
kingdom. 

770. Zachariah. 

771. Shallum. 
771. Menahem. 

Israel made 
tributary 
to Syria. 
760. Pekahiah. 
758. Pekah. 

First depor- 
tation to 
Assyria. 



729. Hoshea. 



Reformation 719. Fall of the 
in Judah. kingdom 

of Israel. 
712. The Assyrians in Judah. 

699. Manasseh, king of Judah. 

Assyrian colonists in Israel. 

644. Amon. 



643. Josiah. 

626. Religious reformation. Idol- 
atry rooted out in Judah, 
and even in Israel. 

609. Battle of Megiddo. 

609. Jehoahaz. 

608. 1 Jehoiakim ascends the throne 
as the vassal of Egypt. 

598. Jehoiakin. 

697. First deportation by the Clial- 
. dees. 
Zedekiah. 

.586. Jerusalem and the Temple de- 
vastated. 



PEOPLES STANDING IN CLOSE 
RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL. 



B.C. 



770. Pul, king of Assyria. 



740. Tiglath Pileser, king of 
Assyria. 
Rezin, king of Syria. 



726-721. Shalmaneser, king of A3 

syria. 
721-704. Sargon, king of Assyria 



704-681. Sennacherib, king of As- 
syria. 

692-666. Tirhakah, king of Egypt. 

681-667. Esarhaddon, king of As- 
syria. 

666-656. Dodecharchy in Egypt. 

666-612. Psammetichus I., king of 
Egypt. 

647-625. Sardanapalus, king of As- 
syria. 

612-596. Necho II., king of Egypt. 



605. Battle of Carchesium. 
604-562. Nebuchadrezzar. 



585. Nebuchadrezzar besieges 
Tyre. 



1 All the dates in the history of Juda and Israel, from Solomon to the battle of 
Carchesium (605), must be regarded as merely approximate. 



B.C. 



CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY. 699 

OTHER PEOPLES- ISRAELITE LITERATURE. 



Assyrian Period. 
Psalm xlv., Deuteronomy xxxiii., 
Numbers xxii.-xxiv., Amos, Ho- 
sea, Zachariah ix.-xi. Prophetic 
narratives in the Pentateuch. 
Narratives in Judges and Sam- 
uel. Song of Solomon. 



About 800 (?) the religion of Zara- 

thustra rises in Bactria. 
776. First Olympiad. 



753. Foundation of Rome. 



1)5. Numa Pompilius, king of 
Rome. 



636-546. Thales. 
620. Draco in Athens. 

616. Tarquinius Priscus, king of 
Rome. 



604. Lao-tze born. 
594. Solon in Athens. 



Deuteronomy xxxiii. 



Michah, Isaiah. 



Collection of Proverbs begun(xxv. 
xxix.) 

Exodus xxxii. (in part). 



Deuteronomy. 

Chaldean Period. 
Nahum, Zephaniah, Zachariah xn. 
xiv., Habakkuk. 



Jeremiah. Many of the Psalms. 



700 



CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



ISRAEL. 



586 S.econd deportation. 

Gedaliah, governor of Judah. 
682. Gedaliah murdered. Jere- 
miah carried to Egypt. 

582. Third deportation to Baby- 
lonia. 



638. Return of the Jews under 
Zerubbabel. 



519. Second Temple completed. 



458. Ezra reaches Palestine with 
several thousand of the ex- 
iles. 

445. Nehemiah, governor of the 

Jews. 
444. Introduction of the Mosaic 

Law. 



414 ? Nehemiah arrives in Palestine 
for the second time. 



About 332. Palestine becomes sub- 
ject to Alexander the Great. 
Jaddua, high priest. 

320. Ptolemy takes Jerusalem. 

314. Antigonus conquers Palestine 
and Phoenicia. 

301. Palestine falls back into the 
power of Ptolemy. 

About 285. Death of the high priest 
Simon I. 

285-265. Eleazar, high priest. 

Wars between Egypt and 

Syria. 
Antigonus of Socho. 

265-240. Manasseh, high priest. 



PEOPLES STANDING IN CLOSE 

RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL. 
B.C. 



559. Revolt of Cyrus against 
Astyages. 



530-522. Cambyses. 

525. Egypt conquered by the Per- 
sians. 
521-485. Darius Hystaspis. 

485-465. Xerxes. 

465-424. Artaxerxes Longimanug. 



424-405. Darius Nothus. 

405-359. Artaxerxes II. (Mnemon). 
374. Defeat of Pharnabazus. 
359-338. Artaxerxes III. (Ochus). 
350. Sidon laid waste. 
336-330. Darius Codomannus, last 

king of Persia. 
336. Alexander, king of Macedon 
333. Battle of Issus. 

323. Death of Alexander the Great. 

Kings of 
Egypt. Stria. 



Ptolemy I., Lagi 
(till 285). 



285-247. Ptole- 
my II., Phila 
delphus. 



Seleucus I., Nica- 
tor (till 280). 

280-261. Antio- 
chus I., Soter. 

201-246. Antio- 
chus II., Theo 



CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



701 



OTHER PEOPLES. 



C. 



680-500. Pythagoras. 
370-500. Anaximenes. 



560. Croesus in Lydia. Peisistratus 

in Athens. 
550-478. Confucius. 



534. Tarquinius Superbus, king of 
Rome. 

510. Expulsion of the Tarquins. 

500. Heraclitus. 

500-428. Anaxagoras. 

490. Battle of Marathon. 

480. Battle of Salamis. 

484-408. Herodotus. Age of Peri- 
cles (died 429). Phidias, 
Sophocles. 

460-370. Democritus. 

469-399. Socrates. 



431-404. Peloponnesian war. 
429-348. Plato, Xenophon. 



388. Death of Buddha. 

385-322. Aristotle, Demosthenes. 

360. Philip, king of Macedon. 



264-241. First Punic War 



ISRAELITE LITERATURE 



Earliest edition of Joshua, Judges 
Samuel, Kings, Lamentations 
Psalms xiv. (liii.), cxxxvii., xc. 
&c, Obadiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah xl. 
lxvi., xiv. 4-21, xxxv., &c. Jere 
miah li., lii. 



Persian Period. 
Haggai. Zechariah i. — ix. Joel. 

Book of Origins. Many of the 
priestly laws in Leviticus and 
Numbers. 

Ruth. Jonah. 



Malachi. Job. Many of the Psalms 
and Proverbs. 



Greek Period. 
Final Edition of the Pentateuch 
and Joshua. Chronicles. Ezra. 
Nehemiah. 



702 



CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



ISRAEL. 



B.C. 



240-225. Joseph ben Tobias farms 
the revenues of Palestine. 

240-225. Onias II., high priest. 
225-195. Simon II., high priest. 
218. Antiochus the Great conquers 

Palestine. 
217. Palestine subject to Egypt. 

203. Antiochus reconquers Pales- 
tine. 

198. War in Palestine between 
Egypt and Syria. 



195-175. Onias III., high priest. 

182-175. Hyrcanus ben Joseph. 

175. Jason buys the high priest- 
hood. 
Theatrical performances in 
Jerusalem. 

174. Antiochus IV. at Jerusalem, 



172. Menelaus, high priest. 
168. Jerusalem taken by 
ochus. 



167. 



Anti- 



(25 Chisleu.) Temple service 

at Jerusalem suspended. 

166. Revolt of Mattathias and his 

sons. Defeat of Apollonius. 

164. (25 Chisleu.) Temple service 

restored. 
162. Judas defeats Nicanor. 
161. Death of Judas. 

Jose ben Joezer and Jose ben 
Jochanan. 
159. Death of the high priest Al- 
cimus. 
Jonathan, leader of the people. 
152. Jonathan, high priest. 
143. Jonathan captured by Try- 
phon and soon afterwards 
murdered. 
Simon, high priest. 
142. Judaea becomes independent. 

141. Capture of Gezer and the cita- 
del at Jerusalem. 
135. Simon murdered. 



PEOPLES STANDING IN CLOSE 
RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL. 
B.C. 

Kings of 
Egypt. » Stria. 



247-222. Ptolemy 
III., Euer<>etes. 



222-205. Ptolemy 
IV. Philopater 



246-226. Seleucua 
II., Callinicus. 

226-223. Seleucus 
III., Ceraunos. 

223-187. Antio- 
chus in., the 
Great. 



203. Battle of Paneas. 



202-181. Ptolemy 
V., Epiphanes. 



181-146. Ptolemy 
VI., Philometer 



187-175. Seleucua 
V., Philopater. 



175-164. Antio- 
chus IV., Epi- 
phanes. 



170. War between Syria and Egypt. 
Battle of Pelusium. 



170-117. Ptolemy 
VII., Euergetes 164-162. Antio- 
II., Physcon. chus V., Eupa- 
tor. 
162-150. Deme- 
trius L, Soter. 
About 160. Temple at On estab- 
lished. 



135-145. Alexan 
der Balas. 

145-140 and 131- 
127. Demetrius 
II. 

145-143. Antio- 
chus VI. 

140-131. Antio- 
chus VII., Si- 
detes. 



CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



703 



OTHER PEOPLES. 



B.C. 



218-201. Second Punk War. Bat- 
tle of Zama. 



193-190. AntiochusIII. at war with 
Rome. 

193. Antiochus defeated at Mag- 
nesia. 



149 Third Punic War. 

148. Macedon becomes a Roman 

province. 
146 Carthage and Corinth sacked. 



ISRAELITE LITERATURE. 



Esther. 

Many of the Psalms. 

Translation of the Law of Moses 

into Greek. 
The proverbs of Jesus ben Sirach. 



Ecclesiastes. 



Book of Daniel. Psalms xliv, 
lxxiv., cxviii., and others. 



Baruch. The Epistle of Jeremiah 



704 



CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



B C. 

135-105. 



ISRAEL. 



John Hyrcanus, high 
priest and prince of 
the Jews. 



120. Temple on Gerizim destroyed. 
110. Samaria taken by the Jews. 
106-105. Aristobulus, high priest 

and king. 
105-78. Alexander Jannaeus, high 

priest and king. 
96. Gaza taken. 

85-82. Alexander wages war be- 
yond the Jordan. 
78-69. Alexandra Salome, queen. 
Hyrcanus, high priest. 
Juda ben Tabbai and Simeon 
ben Setah. 
69. Aristobulus expels Hyrcanus 
and becomes high priest 
and king. 
66. War between Hyrcanus and 

Aristobulus. 
64. Scaurus at Damascus. 
63. Pompey at Damascus. 
61. Pompey takes Jerusalem. 

Hyrcanus II., high priest and 
ethnarch. 
57-55. Revolt in Judaea. 
54. Crassus plunders the Temple. 
47. Aristobulus poisoned at Rome. 
Hyrcanus II. recognized by 
Caesar as ethnarch of Ju- 
daea. Antipater, procurator 
of Judaea. Herod, governor 
of Galilee. 
Shemaiah and Abtalion. 
42. Herod enters Jerusalem in 

triumph. 
40-37. Antigonus ascends the 
throne by the aid of 
the Parthians. 
40. The Roman Senate nominates 

Herod king. 
37. Jerusalem taken by Herod. 
Hillel and Shammai. 

24. Boethus, the Alexandrian, high 

priest. 
19-10. Erection of Herod's temple. 
15. Agrippa at Jerusalem. 
10. Completion of Caesarea by 

Herod. 
4. Death of Herod. War of Varus. 



PEOPLES STANDING IN CLOSE 
RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL. 
B.C. 



113-95. Antiochus Cyzicenus. 



66. Pompey in Asia. 

64. Syria becomes a Roman prov- 
ince. 



57-55. Gabinius, governor of Syria. 
54-53. Crassus, governor of Syria. 
47-46. Sextus Caesar, governor of 

Syria. 



44-42. Syria under Cassius. 



40. The Parthians in Syria. 



31. Battle of Actium. 

31 b.c-14 a.d. Augustus, emperor. 

23-13. Agrippa, imperial legate in 
Asia. 



CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY. 705 

OTHER PEOPLES. ISRAELITE LITERATURE. 



133-120. The Gracchi at Rome. 



84. End of the Mithridatic war 
82. Sulla, dictator 



63. Conspiracy of Catiline. 



58-50. Caesar's campaigns in Gaul. 
49. Caesar crosses the Rubicon. 
48. Battle of Pharsalia. Death of 
Pompey. 



44 (March 15). Death of Caesar. 
42. Battle of Philippi. 



41. Second Triumvirate. Antony 
obtains the East. 



Sibylline Oracles, iii. 97-807. 

132. Proverbs of Jesus Sirach 

translated into Greek. 
Oldest portions of book of Enoch. 



About 106. I. Maccabees. Soon 
afterwards II. Maccabees. 



Additions to Esther. Tobit. 
Prayer of Manasseh. 



Roman Periods 



Psalms of Solomon. 



30* 



706 



CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



ISRAEL. 
B.C. 

4. Archelaus, ethnarch of Judaea, 
Samaria, and Idumaea. Anti- 
pas, tetrarch of Galilee and 
Peraea. Philip, tetrarch of 
the northern district, east of 
the Jordan. 



A.D. 

6. Archelaus banished. 

Judaea incorporated in Syria. 
Quirinus holds a census. 
Coponius, procurator of Judaea. 
Kevolt of Judas the Galilaean. 
9-12. Marcus Ambivius, procu- 
rator. 
12-15. Annius Rufus, procurator. 
15-26. Valerius Gratus, „ 
26-36. Pontius Pilate, 

Desecration of the City of 
the Temple. 
18-36. Joseph, surnamed Caiaphas, 
high priest. 

34. Death of Philip. His territory 
becomes a Roman province. 
Rabban Gamaliel. 
37. Agrippa I., king of Philip's 
territory. 
Birth of Flavius Josephus. 
38-40. Persecution of the Jews in 

Alexandria. Philo. 
39. Herod Antipas banished. 

Caligula determines to dese- 
crate the Temple. 
41-44. Agrippa I., king of the 

whole of Palestine. . 
44. Palestine a Roman province. 

Famine in Judaea. 
44-46. Cuspius Fadus, governor. 

Theudas. 
46-48. Tiberius Alexander, gov. 
48. The Jews expelled from Rome. 
48. Agrippa II., prince of Chalcis 

and overseer of the Temple. 
48-52. Cumanus, governor. 

Repeated revolts of the 
Jews. 
62-61. Claudius Felix, governor. 

Growing power of the 

Sicarii. 
Simon ben Gamaliel. 



PEOPLES STANDING IN CLOSE 

RELATIONS WITH ISluAEL 
B.C. 



14-37. Tiberius. 



32. Avellius Flaccus, governor ol 
Egypt. 

36-39. Vitellius, governor of Syria. 
37-41. Caius Caligula. 



39. Petronius, governor of Syria. 
41-54. Claudius. 



47. The royal house of Adiabene 
converted to Judaism. 



CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



707 



OTHER PEOPLES. 



A.D. 



9. Arminius defeats Varus in the 
German forests. 



CHRISTIANITY. 



33 ? John the Baptist. 

34-35? Public ministry of Jesus. 

35 ? (At the Passover.) Jesus cruci- 
fied at Jerusalem. 

37 ? Persecution of the disciples 
(Stephen). Paul converted. 



40 ? Paul at Jerusalem with Peter 

(Galatians i. 18). 
44 ? Death of James, the son of 

Zebedee. 



Between 40? and 51? Paul (and 
Barnabas) in Syria and Cili- 



51 ? Conference at Jerusalem (Gal. 

ii. 1-11). Dispute between 
Peter and Paul at Antioch 
(Gal. ii. 12 ff). 

52 ? Paul in Galatia. . 

Paul in Europe. 
Paul at Corinth. 



ISRAELITE LITERATURE. 



Ascension of Moses. 



Susanna. Bel and the Dragou, 
LU. Maccabees. Wisdom. 



Philo. 



708 



CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



ISRAEL. 



60. Portius Festus, governor. 

62. Albinus, governor. 

Constant disturbances in Pales- 
tine. 

64. The Temple of Jerusalem com- 
pleted by Agrippa II. 

61-66. Gessius Florus, governor. 

66. Revolt at Caesarea and Jerusa- 

lem. Masada surprised. Ces- 
tius defeated. Many Chris- 
tians retreat to Pella. Fla- 
vius Josephus, governor of 
Galilee. 

67. Galilee in the power of the 

Romans. 

68. Vespasian conquers Northern 

Judaea and Idumaea. 
70. Titus besieges and takes Jeru- 
salem. Temple destroyed. 
73. Masada, the last refuge of the 
Zelots, taken. 
The Scribes retreat to Jamnia. 
Johanan ben Zacchai. 
Fall of the Temple at On. 
Gamalielben Simeon, patriarch 

of the Jews. 
The new Sanhedrim at Jamnia. 
81-96. Persecution of the Jews 
under Domitian. 

116. Revolt of the Jews in Cyrene 
and Egypt. 

1 32-135. Revolt under Barcochbah. 

Taking of Betar. Akibah 

ben Joseph. 

i35. Jerusalem a Roman city. 

Scribes assemble at Lydda. 

The national existence of 

the Jews at an end. 



PEOPLES STANDING IN CLOSE 

RELATIONS WITH ISRAEL 
A.D. 

54-68. Nero. 



64 (July). Conflagration of Rome. 
(August). Persecution of the 
Christians. 



68. Galba, Otho, Vitellius. 

69-79. Vespasian. 

70. Titus enters Rome in triumph 



79-81. Titus. 

81-96. Domitian. 
96-98. Nerva. 

98-117. Trajan. 

117-138. Hadrian. 



138-161. Antoninus Pius. 



161-180. Marcus Aurelius. 



CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



709 



CHRISTIANITY. 
A.D. 

54? I. Thessalonians? 
55-59 ? Paul at Ephesus and Cor- 
inth. 
56? Galatians. 

58 ? /. and II. Corinthians. 
59 1 Romans. 

59 ? Paul goes to Jerusalem and is 

made prisoner. 
59-61 ? Paul at Csesaraea. 
61-62 ? Paul's journey to Rome. 
62-64? Paul's imprisonment at 
Rome. 
II. Timothy i. 1, 2, 15-18; iv. 
9-18? Philippians. Phile- 



64. Paul's death. 

62 or 69? James murdered. 



68. Revelation. 

Before 70 ? Oldest portions of Mat- 
thew and Mark. 



? Hebrews. II. Thessaloni- 
ans. Colossians . 



About 90 ? James. Gospels accord- 
ing to Matthew and Mark. 

Soon after 100. /. Peter. Ephesians. 
Gospel according to Luke. 
Soon followed by Acts of 
Apostles. 

After 130? II. Timothy. Titus. 
I. Timothy. 
Jude. 

Before 150? Gospel according to 
John. I. John. II. John. 
III. John. 

After 150? II. Peter. Epistle of 
Barnabas. Epistle of Clem- 
ent. 

170. Church history of Hegesippus. 



ISRAELITE LITERATURE 



.!>. 



IV. Maccabees. 
Book of Jubilees. 



After 70. Judith. 

Close of the Canon. 



Before 79. Josephus's "Jewish 
War." 

Apocalypse of Baruch. IV. Esdras. 

93 or 94. Josephus's "Jewish An- 
tiquities " and "Against 
Apion." 

After 100. Josephus's " Life." 



Mishna of Rabbi Akibah, Mechilta, 
Siphre, Siphra. 



Near the end of the second century 
Rabbi Judah gives the 
Mishna its present form. 



INDEXES. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Aaron, 44; families of priests called 
after his sons, 44. 

Abarbanel, a Jewish scholar, 74; date 
of his conclusions about the Messiah, 
74. 

Abbas, son of, 60, 442. 

Abel, 399. 

Abiathar, 214. 

Abilene, a principality near Damascus, 
96. 

Abraham, 46, 47, 72 ; the true descend- 
ants of, thought by the Jews to oc- 
cupy a high place in the kingdom of 
the Messiah, 22, 58 ; pedigree of Jesus 
going back to Abraham, 35, 39; in 
the parable of Lazarus, 387, 388. 

" According to Matthew," explanation 
of the term, 30. 

Achaia, places in, visited by Paul, 19, 
20, 570, 572, 579, 595. 

Achaicus, 571, 599. 

Acts, Book of, 23, 181; the book ex- 
amined, 25, 26; its character and 
significance, 540, 541; one of the 
written sources of the information 
of, the book, 562, 563; the writer 
of, anxious to restore peace to the 
Church, 616; his conciliatory pur- 
pose, 659 ; the book probably com- 
posed at Rome, 660 ; particulars about 
Paul, 521-524; account of Paul's 
action after the conversion, 533; ful- 
ness of accounts concerning Paul, 
535; the author of, ascribes to Paul 
miracles similar to those ascribed to 
Peter, 540; his mode of representing 
Peter and Paul, 540, 544, 660; descrip- 
tion of the collision of the two par- 
ties in the community at Jerusalem, 
553-561; artificial division of Paul's 
missionary labors, 562; account of 
Paul at Athens, 569, 570; event show- 
ing the Romans to be more friendly 
to the Gospel than the Jews, 572 ; ac- 
count of a journey of Paul from 
Ephesus to Jerusalem, 579 ; stories of 



Paul's apostolic dignity, 589, 590; 
story of Paul and tumult concerning 
Artemis, 593, 594; account of Paul's 
farewell to the Ephesians, 612, 613; 
account of Paul's reception at Jeru- 
salem of doubtful credibility, 615- 
617; the author's desire to represent 
Paul as an unimpeachable Jew, 616, 
617, 622, 624, 625, 629, 630, 641; story 
of Paul's being mobbed at Jerusalem, 
619, 620; account of Paul's imprison- 
ment, 625-642 ; the narrative of Paul 
at Rome abruptly closes, 640, 641. 

Adam, 39 ; the type of the sinful race of 
man, 531. 

Adramyttium, 630. 

Adriatic Sea, the, 260. 

Adultery, Penalty for, in the Law; 376, 
377. 

iEneas, a cripple cured by Peter, 557. 

./Ethiopia, 1. 

Africa, 76. 

African desert, the, 1. 

Agabus, a Judsean prophet, 535, 614. 

Age. See Apostolic Age, Golden Age, 
Messianic Age. 

Agrippa I. See "Herod Agrippa I." 

Agnppa II., 625; date of his appoint- 
ment to the supervision of the tem- 
ple, 4; arrives at Csesarea, 628; 
Paul's case referred to and tried be- 
fore him, 628-630. 

Ahab, his wife possibly a model for 
Herodias, 272. 

Ahasuems, the wandering Jew, 448, 449 

Ahimelech, 214. 

Ahitophel, 483. 

Akiba, his views on divorce, 339. 

Albinus, successor to Festus, 645. 

Alexander, a Jew, 594. 

Alexander, a man said to be the son of 
Simcn of Cyrene, 448. 

Alexander the Great, 2, 7, 40. 

Alexander Jannoeus, 3. 

Alexandria, 521, 536, 648; the Jews in, 
rise to a distinguished position, 7 



714 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Alexandrian Philosophy, tne, 28, 649, 
650 ; central idea of, 66&-671. 

Alexandrians, the, 506. 

Allies, the, 1. 

Alphaeus, 180, 200. 

Amen, 140 ; use of word, at the end of 
prayer, 263. 

Amphipolis, 567. 

Amplias, 591. 

Ananias, the story of his vision and 
Paul's conversion, 523, 524; oom- 
pared with Cornelius, 561; referred to 
by Paul, when mobbed at Jerusalem, 
620, 621. 

Ananias, story of, and of Sapphira, 490- 
492; compared with Elymas, 540. 

Ananias, the high priest, 621, 645. 

Ancyra, 563. 

Andrew, son of Jona, 127; Simon's 
brother, 127, 181; called by Jesus to 
follow him, 127-129; a disciple of 
Jesus, 180, 674; Jesus talks with 
the brothers on the Mount of Olives, 
402. 

Andronicus, 591. 

Angelology, 46, 133, 378. 

Anna, Mother of Mary, account of, 47. 

Anna, the prophetess, sees Jesus, 63; 
the story of, considered, 63-66. 

Annas, the high priest, 96, 389, 495, 
686 ; date of his deposition, 96. 

Annas, son of, 86. 

Antichrist, 652, 653; supposed to be 
Nero in Kevelation, 654; how stig- 
matized in the three Epistles of John, 
664. 

Antioch, capital of Syria, 17, 516 ; head- 
quarters of Paul, 17, 534-536, 540 ; 
the liberal school of Jesus established 
there, 18; the congregation disturbed 
by the Jewish Christians, 18; depart- 
ure of Paul, 19; Paul's congregation 
fall away from him, 21; its import- 
ance and population, 536, 605; trouble 
among the believers, 547, 560-562; 
Peter's visit to, 550-553; date of im- 
portant events, 562. 

Antioch in Pisidia, Paul's visit to, 537- 
539. 

Autiochus Epiphanes, 280. 

Antipa^. See Herod Antipas. 

Antipater, 3. 

Antipatris, 623. 

Antonia, 619, 620, 623; castle of, 449. 

Apelles, 591. 

Apocalypse, the, 22, 24, 3!J8, 399, 401, 
652-655, 665; ascribed to John, 
645; date of its composition, 646; ex- 
amined as to contents and purpose, j 
646, 647. 

Apocalyptic Literature, its significance, j 
652/ 



Apocryphal Gospels, the, 72, 76-78 ; ac- 
counts of Joseph, Marv, and Jesus, 
71, 72, 76-78, 83-87; conception of 
the Messiah, 110. 

Apollonia, 567. 

Apollos. a Jew of Alexandria, 596 ; a 
fellow-worker of Paul, 596, 599; pos- 
sible author of the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, 642, 649. 

Apostles, the, 8, 16; leaders of the 
stricter sect of Jesus's followers, 17; 
appealed to in the dissensions among 
the Christians, 18; their authority re- 
cognized by the Heathen-Christians, 
21 ; wrote of Jesus, in the time of his 
activity in Israel, 37; their belief in 
the Messiabship of Jesus, 110: the 
title of Apostle claimed by Paul, 
180; significance of the title, its or- 
igin, and the office of the Apostolate, 
180, 184, 484; sent on their work by 
Jesus, 182-184; appear unfavorably, 
195 ; meaning of the word resurrec- 
tion, 463, 464 ; their belief in the re- 
surrection, 477; carry on the work 
of John the Baptist, 488 ; members of 
the community at Jerusalem. 482- 
502 ; speak in many tongues, 485, 486 ; 
story of their work and its miraculous 
commencement, 485-488; wonders 
worked bv them at Jerusalem, 490- 
492, 494-499; prosecuted by the San- 
hedrim, 495-498 ; their disappearance 
from history, 645; did not intend to 
found a new religion, 650. See Disci 
pies, and the Twelve. 

Apostles, Acts of the, 25, 26. Sea 
Acts. 

Apostolate, the office of, 484. 

Apostolic Age, the historical sketch of, 
1-33; end of the struggles of, 21, 
22; use of the word '"Amen" for 
closing prayer, 263; controversy con- 
cerning who might enter the Mes- 
sianic Kingdom, 292-311; belief in 
the return of Jesus the central 
thought of, 333, 334; importance at- 
tached to the suffering in the Garden 
of Gethsemane by Jesus, 423, 424; 
importance laid on the salvation 
through suffering, 455; legend of the 
transfiguration, 502-504. 

Apostolic Fathers, the, writings of, 22. 

Appia, probablv the wife of Philemon, 
638. 

Appian Way, the, 634 

Appii Forum, 634, 635. 

Aquila, 570, 571, 579, 593; goes witb 
Paul to Ephesus, 572; instructs Apol- 
los in Christianity, 596. 

Arabia, 1, 16, 94, 530. 

Aramaic tongue, the, 505. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



715 



Archelaus, Lii portion of Judaea, 3; 
ruler in Judaea, 4, 70, 590; date of 
his banishment, 4, 56. 

Archippus, 638. 

Areopagus, the, Paul preaches there, 
570. 

Ares, hill of, 569, 570. 

Aretas, 122, 532. 

Arimathea, 185, 689. 

Aristarchus, 5t»8 ; fellow-laborer of 
Paul, 590, 609, 610; seized at Ephe- 
sus, 594; accompanies Paul to Italy, 
630 ; with Paul in Rome, 638. 

Aristobulus, civil war with Hyrca- 
nus, 3. 

Artemis, worshipped by the Ephesians, 
593, 594. 

Ascension, the, 476, 477. 

Ascension Day, 477. 

Ashdod, 516. * 

Asia Minor, 19, 562, 563, 645 ; commu- 
nities of Jews established in, 7. 

Asians, synagogues of the, 506. 

Asiarchs, the, 594. 

Ass, the, 359-362. 

Assus, visited b}' Paul, 611. 

Athens, 521; account of Paul's labors, 
568-570; community at, 569. 

Atlantic Ocean, the, 1. 

-A tonement, Day of, 212. 

Atonement, symbol of, at the cruci- 
fixion, 689. 

Attalia, 540. 

Augustine, date of his writings, 668. 

Augustus, division of the Roman pro- 
vinces, 2 ; tolerant to the Jews, 2, 3 ; 
date of his reign, 2; divides Judaea 
among the sons of Herod, 3, 4; em- 
peror of Rome, 58, 358 ; city named 
after him, 312; the city of Philippi 
made a Roman colony by him, 56-1. 

Authorized version, rendering in the 
Lord's Prayer, 263. 

Baaras, a root said to have the power 
of exorcism, 133. 

Babel, confusion of language, 487. 

Babylon, the wail of the Jewish cap- 
tives used as a prophecy of the mur- 
der at Bethlehem, 75. 

Babylonia, communities of Jews estab- 
lished in, 7. 

Bakers, the business of, followed by 
some of the Rabbis, 90. 

Balaam, storv of, 73; the doctrine of, 
647. 

Balthazar, 76. 

Balthazar Bekker, pastor of Amster- 
dam, 134. 

Banus, 100. 

Baptism, rite of, 8; the baptism of re- 
pentance, 104; the ceremony of, 104, 



105; command of Jesus concerning, 
472, 473; origin of the practice, 488: 
takes the place of circumcision, 658; 
its importance in the Church, 662. 

Barabbas, called Jesus, 60; cry for his 
release, 445 ; a robber, released at the 
Passover, 687. 

Barbarians, 1. 

Bar-Cochbah, signilication of name, 
74. 

Barjesus, 537. 

Barnabas, 15, 18; his teaching at An- 
tioch, 18; his visit to Jerusalem to 
consult about the true faith, 18, 19, 
547; joins Peter in his faith, 19; re- 
turns to Antioch, 19, 550; cousin of 
Mark, 24 ; signilication of name, 490 ; 
a Cvprian, 517; follower of Paul, 
533-536, 543, 590; said to have 
brought money to the sufferers in 
Judaea, 535; consecrated for mis- 
sion work, 537; his missionary jour- 
ney, 537-541; his work at Lystra, 
539 ; worshipped as Zeus, 539 ; 
estranged from Paul, 652, 555- 
557: account in Acts of his contro 
versy with the community at Jeru 
salem, 553-557 ; account in Acts 
suddenlv dropped, 641. 

Barnabas, Letter of, 22, 477, 665. 

Bartholomew, a disciple of Jesus, 180 ; 
thought by some to be Nathanael, 
676. 

Bartimseus, story of, 355, 356. 

Bath, customs and laws of the Jews 
concerning, 277. 

Beatitudes, the, 155-159 ; considered, 
their signification, 158. 

Beautiful Gate, the, 494. 

Beelzebul, 586. 

Bekker, Balthazar, pastor of Amster- 
dam, 134. 

Benjamin, Paul's descent from the 
tribe of, 520. 

Berea, 568. 

Berechiah, 399. 

Bernice, widow of Herod of Chalcis, 
628, 630. 

Bethany, 14, 185, 359 ; Jesus goes with 
the Twelve to Bethany every even- 
ing while at Jerusalem, 370, 421 ; 
Jesus leads his disciples on the road 
to, at the time of his ascension, 476; 
home of Martha and Mary, 682. 

Beth-Arbeel, 237. 

Bethesda, Jesus at the bath, 678, 679. 

Beth-Haran, 337. 

Bethlehem, 39; said to be the birth- 
place of Jesus, 39, 40, 42; Joseph 
and Mary go to the city, 52, 53 ; the 
birth of Jesus, 53; the vision of the 
shepherds, 54; song of the angels, 



716 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



54, 59, 64; the visit of the Magi, 69, 
70; slaughter of the children by 
Herod, 70, 73. 

Bethlehem, the Star of, 68, 69, 72- 
74, 76; use of Old Testament texts 
and prophecies to explain it, 73, 74. 

Bethphage, 360, 361, 370. 

Bethsaida, 125 ; visited bv Jesus, 125, 
137, 209, 282, 311, 312; warned by 
Jesus, 259, 303, 543; home of An- 
drew, 674. 

Bezetha, 449. 

Birth, instances of so-called miraculous 
birth, 40, 41 ; account of the miracu- 
lous birth of Jesus, 51-53, 56, 57; 
emblematic meaning of the legend, 
57-59 ; ordinance relating to, 61. 

Birthdav of the Unconquerable Sun, 
66. 

Bishops, their office in the Church, 664. 

Blastus, 501. 

Blind, the, healed by Jesus, 355, 680, 
681. 

Blood, symbolized in the wine at the 
Last Supper, 415-418; held to be 
sacred by the Israelites, 416 ; symbol 
of the atonement at the crucifixion, 
689. 

Blood-acre, the, 483. 

Boanerges, signification of name, 181. 

Bread, symbol of Jesus' s bodv at the 
Lord's Supper, 415-418, 679,*680. 

Britain, 1. 

Buddha, 40. 

Builders, 90. 

Burnt sacrifice, 61. 

Burrhus, tutor of Nero, 635. 

Caesar, 376; Paul appeals to, 627, 628, 
630. 

Caesar, Julius, 2, 654; story of his 
crossing the Adriatic Sea, 260. 

Csesarea, seat of the Roman governors, 
4, 97, 439, 447, 558: Paul in cap- 
tivity, 20, 625-630; Peter labors here 
as apostle of the Jews, 558-560 ; Paul 
stays at, 612-614. 

Caesarea-Palestina, 501. 

Caesarea-Philippi, 282, 283, 311, 312, 
315, 326. 

Caiaphas, Joseph, the high priest, 96, 
392 ; date of his office, 96 ; president 
of the Sanhedrim, 428, 430: trial of 
Jesus, 430-433, 686, 687; questions 
Peter and John, 495; threatens the 
life of Jesus, 683. 

Caligula, claims divine honors, 544. 

Campagna, 634. 

Cana, 666, 676. 

Canaan, 101. 

Candace, 515; converted by Philip, 515, 
516. 



Capernaum, 9 ; Jesus chooses this 
place to begin his wo: k, 9, 124, 125 ; 
its situation, 124; work of Jesus at, 
124-138, 237, 239, 676, 679; favorite 
walk of Jesus bv the lake, 200; 
warned by Jesus, '259, 303, 543 ; the 
son of the officer of, healed by Jesus, 
678. 

Captivitv, the, 35, 60, 103, 109. 

Carmel, 613. 

Carnival, the, 67. 

Carthaginians, on the island of Melita, 
633. 

Caspar, 76. 

"Castor and Pollux," the, Paul em- 
barks on the vessel, 634. 

Catholic Church, the, holds Joseph in 
high esteem, 72; its need of sacred 
writings, 664, 665 ; rise of the, 645, 
657-665; its religion, government, 
and discipline, 662-664; the com- 
munion of the faithful symbolized 
in a story in the last chapter of John, 
667 ; may abide supreme onlv for a 
time, 668, 669. See the Church. 

Catholic Epistles, the, their authorship, 
24. 

Catholics, the Roman, celebrate Christ 
mas-eve, 68. 

Cenchreae, 570; community of Chris- 
tians formed at, 571. 

Census, the, 52, 55, 56. 

Cephas, its signification, 181; name 
given to Simon, 674. See Peter. 

Chattin, horns of, 141, 237. 

Children, blessed by Jesus, 341, 342. 

China, a comet seen there used by com- 
mentators, 73. 

Chios, 611. 

Chorazin, 125, 137; visited bv Jesus, 
137; warned by Jesus, 259, 303, 543. 

Christ, the Greek word for Messiah, 
18 ; name applied to Jesus, 38, 319 ; 
the fate3 of, indicated in the Old Tes- 
tament, 47, 48 ; thought by the Jews 
to belong exclusively to Israel, 58 ; 
Christians perplexed* at the account 
of Jesus' s baptism, 115-117; encoun- 
ter with Satan, 321-324; the second 
Adam, 531 ; signification of the 
name, 536 ; preached to the heathen, 
541, 542 ; his gospel preached in Eu- 
rope, 562-576; how typified in He- 
brews, 649 ; the belief* in his second 
coming, 650-655 ; vanquishes Satan, 
account in Revelation, 654; the be- 
lief in his second coming utterly dis- 
appointed, 655-657; a supernatural 
being to some, 664 ; a sect drawing a 
distinction between Jesus and Christ, 
664; the Christ of the Fourth Gos- 
pel, 671, 672; those in Jerusalem, 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



717 



acknowledging Jesus as the Christ, 
to be laid under a ban, 681. See 
Jesus of Nazareth. 

Christian Church, the, called into ex- 
istence, 670. See Church and Cath- 
olic Church. 

Christian Communities. See commu- 
nities of Christians. 

Christian Era, the, date of its arrange- 
ment, 37. 

Christian Literature, the, 22-33, 87; 
one of the earliest specimens of, if 
authentic, 573. 

Christianity, 3 ; its debt to Paul, 20, 
21; origin of, idea of development, 
48; springs froi i Judaism, 66; its 
connection with Essenism, date of, 
213; the conditions of gaining a hear- 
ing, 285 ; the development dominated 
by Paul, 519 ; its springing into life, 
536 ; important period of its growth, 
590; its position in Hebrews, 650; 
differences between that and the reli- 
gion of Israel exaggerated, 657; the 
rise of three parties, 657, 658; the 
rise of the Catholic Church, 657-665; 
applied as a new Law, 658 ; takes a 
uew direction, 659 ; its development 
into a Church, 661, 662: importance 
of baptism and the Lord's Supper, 
662; regulation of worship in the 
Church, 662 ; ultimately to escape 
from the conflict of the parties, 669 ; 
transition from early conceptions of, 
to that of the Fourth Gospel, 671; 
how represented in the Fourth Gos- 
pel, 672 ; its guidance should not be 
assigned for all ages to the disciple 
whom Jesus loved, 691. 

Christians, the, 3 ; the two schools, 
16-22 ; see Heathen-Christian, and 
Jewish-Christian ; collision of the 
two schools, 18-22, 541-562 ; kept no 
regular intercourse with Jerusalem, 
18 ; the, origin of the name, 18, 
536; difference of principle in the 
two schools stamped on the litera- 
ture, 22-33 ; their desire to know 
more of Jesus, and manner of find- 
ing the knowledge, 37, 38; use of 
passages from the Old Testament, 
83 ; the faith of, degenerates in the an- 
cient Church, 87; perplexed at the 
account of Jesus's baptism, 115-117; 
reasoning concerning Jesus's baptism, 
118, 119 ; influence of Paul upon 
their beliefs, 197; use of the word 
"Amen" for closing prayer, 263; 
the early, their versions of passa- 
ges in Matthew, 340, 346 ; feeling of 
the early Christians about the trial 
>f Jesus before Pilate, 443; their 



view of the twenty-second psalm, 
452 ; importance attached to the 
anointing of Jews, 406 ; stories of 
wonders at the time of Jesus's death, 
455-457; name given to the Disci- 
ples, 536 ; the Gentile brethren at 
Antioch, 550-553; at Home, their re- 
ception of Paul, 635 ; Paul's relations 
with, 636, 637 ; encouraged by Paul 
to preach more boldly, 639 ;' hated 
at Rome, 640-642 ; persecuted at 
Rome, 641, 642 ; their disappoint- 
ment about the Kingdom of God, 
655-657; effect of Nero's persecu- 
tion, 660 ; their disappointed hopes, 
how met. 661, 662; celebration of 
Easter, 662, 663 ; the first day of the 
week takes the place of the Jewish 
Sabbath, 662 ; the Christ of the 
Fourth Gospel 671,672. See Heathen- 
Christians and Jewish-Christians. 

Christmas, German name of, 68; signifi- 
cance of the word in English, 68. 

Christmas Day, origin of, 66, 67; rea- 
son for selecting the 25th of Decem- 
ber, 66, 67; different days selected, 
66^ 67; observed in Germany, 67, 68. 

Christmas-eve, 67. 

Christinas presents, 68. 

Christmas trees, 67. 

Church, the, 66, 67, 74 ; chooses Christ- 
mas Day, 66, 67; stress laid on the 
story of the Magi, 75, 76 ; stress laid 
on the legend of Matthew, 78; its 
identification of Mary Magdalene, 
207; Ascension Day, 477; Paul the 
founder of the Christian Church, 
642; takes the place of the King- 
dom of God, 661 ; the government 
and discipline of, 663 ; modelled after 
the type of the Roman empire, 664 , 
its need of sacred writings, 664. 665 . 
symbolical presentation of old Church 
history, 667, 668. 

Church, the Catholic, 24, 26. See 
Catholic Church. 

"Church of the Holy Sepulchre," 
449. 

Chusa, 186 ; Herod's steward, 186. 

Cilicia, visited bv Paul, 17, 533, 541, 
547, 555, 563, "624; mission of Paul 
in, 534. 

Cilician Sea, 631. 

Cilicians, the, 506. 

Circumcision, 18, 49, 60, 232; replaced 
by baptism, 658. 

"City of Palms," 352. 

Clauda, island of, 631. 

Claudia Procula, 444. 

Claudius, the Emperor, 501, 570, 625; 
date of his reign, 535. 

Claudius Felix, 4. See Felix. 



718 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Claudius Lysias, story of Paul's being 
saved from the mob, 619, 620. See 
Lysias. 

Ctean, the, 290, 356. 

Cleanness, 6, 10, 199, 385. 

Clement, his letter to the Corinthians, 
22, 665; fellow-laborer of Paul, 565. 

Cleopas, 464. 

Cloe, 599. 

Clopas, 688. 

Cnidus, 631. 

Colleges of Jerusalem, 6, 93, 140. 

Colossa?, 590, 638; Christian commu- 
nity established in, 590. 

Colossians, Epistle to, its authenticity, 
23 ; its tone, 650 ; transition from ideas 
of earlv Christianity to the doctrine of 
the Fourth Gospel,' 671. 

"Comforter," the, 64. 

Commandments, the Ten, referred to 
by Jesus, 226, 227, 278, 280, 343. 

Commandments, the two command- 
ments given by Jesus, 381, 382. 

Communities, their history after Paul's 
death, 644-665. 

Communities of Christians, established 
in different places. See Athens ; Cen- 
chreas; Colossse; Corinth; Ephesus; 
Galatia ; Greece ; Hierapolis ; Jerusa- 
lem; Laodicea; Pergams; Philadel- 
phia ; Philippi ; Phrygia ; Rome ; 
Sardis; Smyrna; Thessalonica ; Thy- 
atira. 

Corinth, 19, 20; Paul's congregation 
fall away from him, 21 ; its position, 
570; Paul at, 562, 570, 576, 605; 
Jewish-Christian opposition, 592. 

Corinth, the community of, specially 
dear to Paul, 595, 596, 598 ; character- 
istics and growth of the community, 
595-600 ; urged to contribute towards 
the collection for Jerusalem, 603, 604 ; 
communhy of, rumor of its founding, 
645. 

Corinthians, Letter of Clement to, 22. 

Corinthians, Paul's Epistles to, and so- 
licitude for, 22, 572, 573, 595-601, 
606 ; date of Paul's Epistle to, 601. 

Corinthians, Second Epistle to, 602. 

Corinthians, Third Epistle to, 602. 

Corinthians, Fourth Epistle to, 603, 604. 

Cornelius, story of Peter's visit to, 558, 
559, 560 ; compared with Ananias, 561. 

Cos, 133, 613. 

Crete, 631, 632, 642. 

Crispus, baptized by Paul, 571, 572. 

Cross, the, 261, 331, 438, 443; use of 
the word by Jesus during lifetime, 
and its symbolism after his death, 
189; the Crucifixion, 447-461, 687, 
688; forms of, 449, 450; the women 
present at the Crucifixion, 451, 688 ; 



custom of denying burial to thos« 
punished on the cross, 458; Jesus cut 
down from it, 459 ; breaking the lega 
of the criminals on, 688, 689. 

Crucifixion, the, 447-461, 687, 688; 
hour of Jesus's execution, 447; intro- 
duced among the Jews by the Ro- 
mans, 449 ; the mode of execution 
described, 449, 450; symbol of the 
atonement and purification, in the 
blood and water flowing from Jesus's 
side, 689. 

Cyprians, the, 516. 

Cyprus, island of, 15, 490, 516, 613, 630; 

Paul and Barnabas embark for, 537. ^ 

Cvrenoeans, the, 506, 516, 517. 

Cyrene, 448, 506. 

Cyrus, 74. 

DAT.MANUTHA, 282, 311. 

Dalmatia, 642. 

Damaris, 569. 

Damascus, Paul teaches there, 17, 532, 
story of Paul's conversion, 522, 523, 
528, 530, 620, 622; the Straight 
Street, 523. 

Daniel, Book of, 48, 315, 401. 

Daniel, his dumbness, 48. 

Danites, the, 311. 

Danube, the, 1. 

Darnel seed, parable of, 643, 644. 

David, 38, 214, 483; his native city, 
Bethlehem, 52; census under, 56; 
signification of name, 61 ; his proph- 
ecy fulfilled, 496. 

"David, Son of," 35, 46, 208, 383, 518. 

Day. See Ascension Day ; Atonement, 
Day of, the; Christmas Day; Inno- 
cents, Massacre of; Saint Nicholas's 
Day; Stephen, Day of commemora- 
tion of the martyrdom of. 

Deaconesses, their office, 663. 

Deacons, order of, 512, 663. 

Dead, the accounts of raising the, bv 
Jesus, 285-287, 682, 683. 

Dead Sea, the, 100, 122, 337. 

Debtor, parables of the, 161, 162, 206. 

Deity, the, 3; Jesus regarded as, 670, 
671. 

Demas, with Paul in Rome, 638. 

Demetrius, complains of Paul, 593, 594. 

Demoniacs, 131, 132. See Devils, Epi- 
lepsy, and Possession. 

Denarii, fifty equal to £2, 206. 

Denarius, value of a, 296. 

Derbe, the city visited by Paul, 538, 
539, 563. 

Deuteronomy, 339; cited by the Jew- 
ish lawyer, 298. 

Devils, cast out bv Jesus, 131-136, 192, 
193, 574, 575, 586, 587. See Epilepsv 
and Possession. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



19 



Diana, worshipped at Ephesus, 593, 
594. 

Dike, goddess of justice, 633. 

Dionysius, first bishop of the commu- 
nity at Athens, 569. 

Dionysius Exiguus, 37. 

Diotrephes, 664. 

Disciples, the, 15, 16; called by Jesus, 
127-129, 178; the names "of the 
Twelve, 127, 128, 178, 180, 181; ask 
Jesus -why he uses parables, 143; 
the Twelve, 178-184, 190-196, 484, 
485; their relations with Jesus, 178- 
180; suggestion of the term disciple, 
179; their occupations, ISO, 181; dis- 
tinctions between "disciples" and 
"apostles," 180; the three most in- 
timate with Jesus, 181; at first un- 
conscious of the Messiahship of Jesus, 
182; trained by Jesus to become his 
fellow-workers, 182 ; stern conditions 
imposed on them, 187-191; fitness of 
the choice as companions of Jesus, 
190-196 ; do not equal Jesus in their 
works, 192-195 ; ask Jesus for a 
prayer, 263 ; depart with Jesus from 
Dafmanutha,311; questioned by Jesus 
as to whom they thought him, 312- 
314 ; they regard Jesus as the Messiah, 
313, 314; conversations with Jesus 
connected with the Messiah, 325-331 ; 
Jesus communicates to them his de- 
termination to go to Jerusalem and 
foreshadows his fate, 326-329, 334, 
335; accompany Jesus to Jerusalem, 
335-356 ; their bearing towards Jesus, 
336, 337; astonishment at Jesus's dif- 
fering with the Law on the subjects of 
marriage and divorce, 340 ; promised 
everlasting life, 345, 346; accompany 
Jesus to Jerusalem, 347-356 ; do not 
understand the teachings of Jesus, 
351; their enlrv of Jerusalem, 359- 
363; go with Jesus everv night to 
Bethanv, 370; at Bethanv, 393, in- 
structed by Jesus, 393-395, 397, 398; 
ask Jesus where they shall prepare 
the Passover feast, 403 ; prepare the 
Passover feast for Jesus, 412; go 
with Jesus to the Last Supper, 412, 
684; the scene of the Last Supper, 
413-416, 684, 685 ; receive the bread 
and wine from Jesus, 415, 416 ; sym- 
bolism of the act, 415-418, 680; 
Jesus's conversation with them after 
the feast, 419-421, 685, 686 ; asked 
by Jesus to remain by the Garden of 
Gethsemane, 421, 686'; rush into the 
garden followed by Judas, 425; flee 
from Jesus, 42" , their belief in Jesus's 
resurrection, 464-467, 472; Jesus ap- 
pears to tnem after his death, 470- 



477, 666, 667, 689, 090; establish 
themselves at Jerusalem, 481, 482; 
number in the community at Jerusa- 
lem, 482 ; choice of Matthias to fill 
the place of Judas, 484 ; their work 
an imitation of that of John the Bap- 
tist, 488 ; wonders worked at Jerusa- 
lem, 490-492, 494-499; questioned 
and condemned by the Sanhedrim, 
495-498; differing elements among 
them, 505; make a new arrangement 
about the care of the poor in the com- 
munity, 505, 506; receive the name 
of Christians, 536; the Disciple 
whom Jesus loved, 666-693; fare- 
well and prayer for, 685. See 
Apostles, and the Twelve. 

"Dispersion, the," 326. 

Divorce, Jesus questioned concerning 
the subject, 338-341 ; customs in Is- 
rael, 339 ; Jewish laws, 647. 

Doctrine, not taught by Jesus, 179 

Dogs, 389. 

Domitian, 38. 

Dorcas, 557; signification of name, 
558 ; her restoration compared to that 
of Jairus's daughter, 561. 

Dove, the, 118, 120. 

Drusilla, third wife of Felix, 625, 626. 

Duumvirs, the, 565, 566. 

East, usages of Eastern hospitality 
200. 205. 

Easter, Feast of, 66. 

Easter, Sunday before, consecrated to 
the entry of Jerusalem, 363; sig- 
nificance" of, 481; conflict as to the 
day of its celebration, 662, 663. 

Eating, custom of washing the hands 
before and after, 276-278. 

Ebionites, the, 22; call Jesus the son of 
Joseph, 57 ; signification of the term, 
158; misunderstand Jesus's mearing 
regarding sacrifice, 219 ; the Jewish- 
Christians, 657; not justified by the 
author of Acts, 660. See Jewish- 
Christians. 

Ecce Homo, 63. 

Egypt, 70, 125, 506; communities of 
Jews established in, 7; journeys of 
Jesus to, and sojourn in, 70, 72, 74, 
75 ; slavery in, some symbols of at 
the Passover, 408. 

Elders of the synagogue, 198, 512, 663. 

Eleazar, the name the same as Lazarus. 
388. 

Eleazar, a Rabbi, 277. 

Eleazer, priests called after him, 44. 

Elijah, why his name is associated with 
that of Moses in the New Testament, 
49, 50; the impression left by him on 
the Israelites, 49, 50 ; prophecies 



720 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



concerning him au i the Messianic 
age, 49-51 ; his garments, 101 ; John 
the Baptist draws a conception of 
his work from him, 109; instances 
of comparison with Jesus, 127, 235, 
255, 272, 286, 287, 303, 313, 333; his 
miracle at Zarephath, 148 ; example 
of, in the minds of the Twelve, 192 ; 
coming of, 325 ; Jesus taunted by the 
people regarding him, 454 ; legend of 
the transfiguration, 502-504; referred 
to in Revelation, 653. 

Elisha, instances of comparison with 
Jesus, 127, 235, 286, 287, 303. 

Elizabeth, 43; mother of John the 
Baptist, story of, 43-46 ; story of, 
considered, 47; receives visit from 
Mary, 52, 55. 

Elkanah, 47. 

Elymas, 60, 537, 540; signification of 
name, 537. 

Emesa, 625. 

Emmaus, 125; the walk to, 464-466. 

"Enchanted World," the, date of its 
publication, 134. 

Enchantment, belief in, 134. 

En gannin, 336. 

England, 67. 

English ports, 147. 

Enoch, 333; quotation from, in Jude, 
649. 

Epaphras, 590, 591 ; shares Paul's cap- 
tivity, 638. 

Epaphroditus, 565 ; brings a present to 
Paul from Philippi, 638. 

Epenetus, 591. 

Ephesians, account of Paul's farewell 
to, 612, 613. 

Ephesians, Epistle to, its authenticity, 
23 ; its conciliatorv purpose, 659, 
660. 

Ephesus, 19, 20; Paul's followers join 
the Jewish Christians, 21; Paul at, 
562, 576-594; date of Paul's settle- 
ment there, 576; trouble in the 
community, 592-594; worship of 
Diana, 593, 594; Paul takes leave of 
the Christians, 595 ; Paul leaves the 
city, 602; John the Evangelist said 
to have lived at Ephesus, 645; com- 
munitv addressed in Revelation, 646, 
647. 

Ephraim, city of, 336, 458, 683. 

Epicureans, 570. 

Epjlepsv, 132-136 ; "On the Sacred 
Disease," 133. 

Epiphanes, Antiochus, 280. 

Epiphany, Feast of, its institution and 
signification, 66, 78. 

Epiphany, hymn of Prudentius, 74, 
75. 

Epistles, 22; the Catholic Epistles, 24: 



the General Epistle*, 24; purpose of 
the Pastoral Epistles^ 663, 664. See 
Barnabas; Clement; Colossians; Cor- 
inthians ; Ephesians ; Galatians ; 
Hebrews ; James ; John ; Jude ; 
Philemon ; Philippians ; Romans ; 
Timothv; Titus. 

Era, the Christian, date of its arrange- 
ment, 37. 

Erastus, converted by Paul, 57 1 ; fel 
low-worker of Paul, 590, 602. 

Essenes, the, a sect of Pharisaism, 6 ; 
their numbe* - , 6; not thrown in 
contact with Jesus, 10 ; customs and 
rules of the sect, 100, 545, 650; the, 
situation of their colonies, 100; their 
daily ablutions, 104; pay attention 
to exorcism, 133 ; have no connection 
with Jesus, 242. 

Essenism, date of its connection with 
Christianity, 243. 

Esther, possibly a model for Salome, 
272. 

Ethiopian, the, Candace, 515, 516. 

Eunice, 539. 

Euodia, 565 ; exhorted by Paul, 640. 

Euphrates, the, 1, 532. 

Europe, 19; the Gospel in, 562-576; 
the first European city in which the 
gospel was preached, 564. 

Eutychus, his escape from death, 611 . 

Excommunication, sentence of, 7, 198. 

Exiguus, Dionysius, 37. 

Ezekiel, receives his call in a vision, 
118 ; a prophetic roll, 140 ; calls him- 
self the " son of a man," 314. 

Ezra, 10, 93, 284; Stephen's defence 
similar to his confession, 507. 

Fair Havens, bay of, 631, 632. 

Faith, the condition of salvation, 16, 
18 ; power of, denied by the Jewish- 
Christians, 18; the conflict concerning 
its efficacy, 21; its power preached 
by Jesus, 194 (see Jesus, his 
preaching); preached bv Paul, 530, 
531, 538, 548-550, 553, 581. 606- 
608. 

Fasts, 212, 213. 

Father, the name used bv Jesus, for 
God, 82, 83, 91, 190, 196 ; His love 
to mankind, 248, 249 ; how regarded 
by Jesus, 685, 686. 

Feasts, customs relating to, 304, 305, 
308. 

Feasts, Easter, 66, 363, 481, 662, 663; 
Epiphany, 66, 74, 75, 78; of the Jews, 
how regarded bv the author of the 
Fourth Gospel, 672; of Lights, 681; 
of Pentecost, 485; of Tabernacles, 
362, 680 ; Three Kings, 78 ; Twelfth 
Night, 78; Whitsuntide, 06 ; Yule, 67 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



721 



Feet, symbolism of Jesus washing his 
disciples' feet, 684. 

Felix, Claudius, 4; Governor of Pales- 
tine, date of his rule, 4, 625; a de- 
spatch regarding Paul sent to him, 
623, 624 ; the trial of Paul, 625, 626 ; 
examines Paul in private, 626; suc- 
ceeded by Porcius Festus, 627. 

Festus, Porcius, Governor of Palestine, 
date of his rule, 4; Paul tried before 
him, 627, 628; mentions Paul's case 
to Agrippa, 628 ; accuses Paul of 
madness, 629, 630 ; his death, 645. 

Fig-tree, the image of, 259; parable of, 
349: story of the withering of the 
tree^ 400. 

Fishes, the, sign of the Zodiac, 74; the 
wonderful draught of, 128, 129 ; 
miracle of the loaves and fishes, 148, 
149, 679. 

Flavius Josephus, date of, 27. See 
Josephus. 

Florus, Gessius, Governor of Palestine, 

Food, clean and unclean, 280. 

"For God, and for Israel," a national 
cry, 7. 

Forecourt, the, 370. 

"Forgiveness of sins," 104, 161, 162, 
204. 

Fortunatus, converted by Paul, 571, 
599. 

Fourth Gospel, the, 29 ; its authorship 
and abiding life, 666-669; extracts 
from, 669, 672-675, 690, 692; tone 
of its author towards Judaism, 671, 
672; purpose of the author, 672, 
673, 690-693; identity of its au- 
thor, 691; the ripest fruit of the spirit 
of Jesus, 692. 

Frankincense, given by the Magi to 
Jesus, 70, 74, 76. 

Frederick, signification of name, 61. 

French Revolution, 435. 

Gabriel, his prophecies concerning 
John the Baptist, 44, 45, 49-51 ; the 
angel, 45, 46 ; precedent for his ap- 
pearing to Zachariah, in the Old 
Testament, 48 ; again a messenger of 
God, 51 ; his appearance to Mary, 
54, 55 ; the message to Mary, 64. 

Gadara, 283, 574. 

Gadarenes, the, 282. 

Gaius, a fellow-worker of Paul, 539, 
568, 571, 590, 609, 610; seized at 
Ephesus, 594. 

Gaius, a letter addressed to him, 664. 

(ialatia, Jewish-Christian opposition to 
Paul, 19, 21, 592, 597, 598; Paul's 
visit to, 563, 564, 579-582 ; communi- 
ties in, 564, 579-582. 

VOL. III. 3 



Galatians, the, Paul welcomed bj 
them, 564; instructed by certain 
emissaries from Jerusalem, and 
warned against Paul, 579 ; asked to 
contribute toward the collection for 
Jerusalem, 602. 

Galatians, Epistle of Paul to the, 25, 
580-582, 584, 606. 

Galba, 654. 

GaliUeans, the, their characteristics, 7, 
88, 89; not esteemed at Jerusalem, 
94, 95 ; slain by Pilate, 348. 

Galilee, given to Herod Antipas, 4; in 
the territory of Antipas, 124; date of 
its return to the Jews, 4; its inhabi- 
tants, 6, 7; early heme of Jesus, 8, 
14, 326; the scene of Jesus's early 
preaching, 9 ; no census taken, 
56 ; Lower, 71 ; its situation, 88, 
90; its population, fertility, and 
climate, 88-90; its religious free- 
dom, 94; visits of Jesus, 139, 140, 
177, 178; course of the pilgrims to 
Jerusalem, 336; Jesus believed in 
because of his miracles, 678. 

Galilee, Sea of, 9, 124, 125 ; the story 
of the storm on, and its emblematic 
meaning, 260, 261; Jesus walking 
on the water, 268, 269. 

Gallio, brother of Seneca, 572; his 
treatment of Paul, 572. 

Gamaliel I., grandson of Hillel, 497, 
498; a teacher of the law, 497; be- 
friends the Apostles, 497, 498 ; date 
of his death, 498. 

Gamaliel, School of, 522. 

Garden of Gethsemane, 370. See Geth- 
semane. 

Garment, the mended, parable of, 213, 
214. 

Gehenna, 131, 136, 169, 175, 226, 387. 

General Epistles, the, their authorship, 
24. 

Gennesareth, Land of, 125, 237. 

Gennesareth, Sea of, 124, 125, 127, 337, 
466 ; Jesus crosses the lake on hear- 
ing of John the Baptist's death, 273. 

Gentile-Christians, 556. 

Gerasa, 574. 

Gerizim, Mount, 99, 192; how regard- 
ed in the Fourth Gospel, 672 ; Jesus 
questioned as to the true place of 
worship, 677. 

German, the word for Christmas, 68. 

Germans, the, their Yule feast, 67. 

Germany, observance of Christmas 
Day, 67, 68. 

Gessius Florus, revolt under him, date 
of, 4. 

Gethsemane, Garden of, 185, 360, 370; 
Jesus in the garden, 421-427, 680, 687. 



722 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Gethsemane, its position, 421 ; signifi- 
cation of name, 421. 

Giscala, 521. 

God, how thought of bj r Jesus, 10, 
173-177, 230, 248, 249; called 
"Father" by Jesus, 82, 83, 91; how 
regarded by the Israelites, 46, 103; 
■ how regarded by John the Baptist, 
102, 103. See Kingdom of God. 

God, Son of, 670, 671. 

"God's first-born," a term used for 
Israel, 75. 

God's son, term used for Israel, 75. 

Gbethe, 269 n. 

Gold, given by the Magi to Jesus, 70, 
74, 76. 

Golden Age, the, 67, 472, 541, 548, 596; 
desire of Jesus and the Apostles to 
hasten the dawn of, 650, 651. 

Golden Rule, the, 220. 

Golgotha, hill of the crucifixion, 14, 449, 
688; pricelessness of the cross, 455; 
signification of name, 449. 

Good Samaritan, the, parable of, 230, 
290-300; scene of the parable, 357. 

Gospel, the Fourth, 666-693. See 
Fourth Gospel. 

Gospel, the struggle with the Law, 546- 
560, 656. 

Gospel History, by Juvencus, 76. 

Gospels, the, the books examined, 27- 
33; how they should be regarded, 
36-42; passages relating to Jesus' s 
birth, 56 ; rejection of accounts con- 
tradictory to Nature, 87 ; account of 
the imprisonment of John the Bap- 
tist, 122, 123; emblematic stories, 
129 ; the sequence of events not to 
be depended on, 142 ; explanation of 
Jesus using parables, 143 ; meaning 
of the miracle of the loaves and 
fishes, 148, 149 ; one of their charac- 
teristics, 157, 158 ; preservation of 
records, 179; how the Twelve are 
represented, 191; explanation of the 
teinn sinners, 197-199; represent 
Jesus as praying frequently, 261; 
the demand for miracles, 285; con- 
tradictory accounts concerning 
Jesus's action toward the heathen, 
293-300, 303-311; the expression 
the "Son of Man," 314, 315. See 
Son of Man. Method of dealing with 
the accounts of Jesus going to Jeru- 
salem, 338; the accounts in, adjusted, 
350; conflicting accounts concerning 
Jesus's trial, 429; metaphors in, 
456. 

Gospels, the Apocryphal, 71, 72, 76- 
78, 83-87, 110. 

Gospels, the Synoptical, 27-32, 378, 
,073, 684. 



Gottlieb, name of, 61; signification of 
name, 61. 

Government, the, 10. 

Grasco-Ronians, 542. 

Grave-diggers, business of, followed by 
some of the rabbis, 90. 

Grecian Jew, letter to "Israel in the 
dispersion," 648. 

Grecians, the Seven, 506, 511-513; 
members of the community at Jeru- 
salem a distinct party, 505, 511 ; 
recognize the Seven as their leaders, 
511. 

Greece, communities of Jews estab- 
lished in, 7 ; Paul stays here a short 
time, 19, 562, 605; the gospel 
preached at Athens, 568-570. 

Greek, the language, where spoken, 2; 
translation of the Old Testament 
into, 7; the proceedings of Jesus's 
trial carried on in this language, 439 ; 
Jewish believers speaking the lan- 
guage, a distinct party in Jerusalem, 
505, 511, 616; one of the languages 
in which the inscription over the 
cross was written, 688. 

Greek Churches, excesses in, 366 

Greek Historians, the, 27. 

Greeks, the, faith in national deicies 
wavering, 3 ; the teachings of Jesus 
preached to them, 17; the gospel 
preached to them, 517, 568-570; the 
liberal party of Jesus's followers 
extends among them, 18 ; the pi-oba- 
ble originators of the idea of the 
Holy Spirit being the father of Jesus, 
57; their expression for salvation 
and saviour, 61 ; foundations of medi- 
cal science laid by Hippocrates among 
them, 133 ; custom of denying burial 
to crucified offenders, 458;" their posi- 
tion and claims to the Kingdom of 
God, 550; in Jerusalem, ask access 
to Jesus, 683. 

Hadrian, 73. 

Hakeldama, 483; its signification, 483 

Hallel, the, the part sung at the Pass- 
over, 413, 419. 

Hamath, 125. 

Hannah, 44, 47, 48 ; her song of thanks- 
giving, 54. 

Hate, the word should not be taken 
literally, 188. 

Healing "of the sick, 9, 85, 131, 135, 
148, 202, 203, 208-210, 216, 308-311, 
355, 356, 367. See Blind. 

Heathen, the, 199; relations of Jesus 
with them, 293-311; Paul the A.pos- 
tle of, 528, 533 ; first mission to, 534- 
543; Christ preached to them, 541, 
542. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



723 



Heathen-Christian School, the, 18. 

Heathen-Christians, their right as citi- 
zens in the Messianic Kingdom, 18, 
19, 21; how treated by Peter, 19; 
to raise a collection for the poor be- 
lievers in Judaea, 19; change in the 
attitude of the Jewish-Christians to- 
ward them, 21, 22; those called Mar- 
cionites, 22; their writings, 26, 39; 
preaching tolerated by the Twelve, 
291. 

Hebrew, the idiom, character of, 188; 
one of the languages in which the in- 
scription over the cross was written, 
688. 

Hebrews, Epistle to the, the spirit of the 
book and its authorship, 23, 649, 655 ; 
expressions borrowed from, 618; 
transition from ideas of early Chris- 
tianity to the doctrine of the Fourth 
Gospel, 671; rejected by some from 
the sacred canon, 665. 

Hebrews, Gospel of the, 22, 116, 120, 
121, 158, 216, 217, 468. 

Hebrews, members of the community 
at Jerusalem a distinct party, 505, 
506; recognize the Twelve as their 
leaders, 511. 

Hebron, 43. 

Hermes, 539. 

Hermon, Mount, 312. 

H' A>d, half-brother of Herod Antipas, 
122. 

Herod Agrippa I., date of his reign, 4, 
544 ; his death, 4, 501 ; imprisonment 
and rescue of Peter, 499-501. 

Herod Agrippa II. See Agrippa. 

Herod Antipas, becomes tetrarch of 
Galilee and Peraea, 4; date of his 
deposition, 4; his treatment of John 
the Baptist, 9; his fear of John, 108; 
marries his half-brother's wife, 122; 
Antipas commands the imprisonment 
of John, 122; occasion of his birth- 
day, 271; Salome demands the death 
of John the Baptist, 271 ; orders the 
murder of John the Baptist, 272; 
hears of Jesus and his work, 
272, 273; represented by the Phar- 
isees as intending to 'kill Jesus, 
275. 

Herod the Great, 3, 4, 5 ; the Idumaean, 
3; date of his securing the Jewish 
throne, 3 ; his character and rule, 3 ; 
his grandson becomes King of the 
Jews, 4 ; his rule hateful, 43 ; no cen- 
sus in his reign, 56 ; his terror and 
cruelty at the news of Jesus' s birth, 

69, 70; succeeded by Archelaus, 
70; the slaughter of the innocents, 

70, 73; day of commemoration of the 
massacre, " 66 ; the palace, 97, 439; 



Paul put in custody at his former 
palace, 624. 

Herodian, significance of its derivation, 
536. 

Herodians, the, 375; a political party, 
242. 

Herodias, 122; desirous of John's death, 
271; the character drawn from a 
model of Ahab's wife, 272. 

Herodion, a relative of Paul, 591. 

Hierapolis, Christian community es- 
tablished at, 590, 591. 

High Priest, the, 4, 5, 44. 

High Priests, the decision about Judas' s 
money, 483. 

Hillel, 215, 498; storv of, in the Talmud, 
219, 220; his fame, 220; revives the 
custom of washing the hands before 
and after eating, 277; his views on 
divorce, 339. 

Hinnom, valley of, 483. 

Hippocrates, founder of medical science 
among the Greeks, 133. 

Hippus, 337. 

Historian, date of the earliest ecclesias- 
tical writer, 545. 

Historical Books, the, their authorsh >p, 
24-26. 

"History of Joseph," 77. 

"History of Mary's Birth and the 
childhood of the Redeemer," 76-78. 

Holland, St. Nicholas's Day, 67, 68. 

Holy Family, 70. 

Holy Night, 68. 

Holy Place, the, 44. 

Holy Scriptures, the, 10, 11; conflicting 
accounts, 71-73. See Old Testament 
and New Testament. 

Holy Spirit, the, 41, 47; gender of the 
Hebrew word for spirit, 57 ; baptism 
of the, 102, 117, 472, 674 ; compared 
to a dove, 118; account of its descent 
upon Jesus, in the form of a dove, 
118, 120 ; the expression used in the 
Lord's Prayer, 263; expression used 
by Luke, 266; its descent upon the 
Apostles, 485-488; baptism of, gen- 
erally regarded as the test of admis- 
sion into the Messianic Kingdom, 618; 
the presence of the Lord in that of 
the Spirit, 669, 672; breathed upon 
the Twelve, 690. 

Homer, 146, 147. 

Horeb, Mount, 50. 

Horns of Chattin, 141, 237. 

Hosanna, 360 ; its signification, 363. 

"Hosanna to the son of David," 362, 
367. 

Hosea, a prophetic roll, 140; passage 
cited from, 218, 246. 

House, arrangements of a Jewish, 164. 

"House of Compassion,'' 678. 



724 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Householder, parable of, 150. 

Houses built on the sand and the rock, 

parable of, 154, 155. 
Husbandman, the, parable of, 152. 
Husbandman and the vineyard, parable 

of, 389-391. 
Hyreanus, civil war with Aristobulus. 3. 

I. N. R. I., meaning of, 688. 

Iconium, 538, 539. 

Idumsea, given to Archelaus, 3; re- 
united with the Jewish kingdom, 4. 

Idumaean Herod, the, 3. See Herod 
the Great. 

Illyria, 579. 

Image- worship, 2. 

Immanuel, name of, 61; signification of 
name, 61. 

Immortality, Jesus' s belief in, 380. 

Incense-makers, 90. 

Indian coasts, the, 145. 

•'Infancy of the Redeemer," 76, 77, 
84. 

Innocents, Massacre of, 70, 73 ; day of 
commemoration of, 66. 

Inquisition, the, 434.' 

Ionian Sea, the, 632. 

Isaiah, a passage misunderstood, 40, 41 ; 
name of, 61 ; signification of name, 61 ; 
his oracles used by Jesus, 94; receives 
his call in a vision, 118; a prophetic 
roll, 140 ; passage cited by Jesus, 143 ; 
prophecies of, explained by Philip, 
516. 

Isaiah, the Second, 101; his description 
of the servant of Yahweh, 196, 197 ; 
cited, 419. 

Israel, want of unanimity among the 
people, 4-6; fall of, caused by the 
"Zealots," 6; religion of, how re- 
garded by Jesus, 10, 11; Jesus's idea 
of his mission to the "lost," 11; 
change in Jesus's views regarding the 
people and country, 13 ; focus of its 
religious life at Jerusalem, 14; ex- 
clusive feeling among the Jewish- 
Christians, 22; an idea of develop- 
ment runs through the religion, 48; 
the Messiah, 39 ; to be ruled by Jesus, 
51, 52; exclusive possessor of the 
Christ, 58; Jesus an Israelite by birth 
and education, 59, 60; the Israelites 
thought much of names, 60, 61; cus- 
toms regarding first-born sons, 61, 
62; birth of the Messiah, 54; their 
longings realized, 64; a type of the 
Messiah, 75; the bovs are instructed 
in the Law, 80, 82, 93; revolt by 
Judas the Galilsean, 89; the effect of 
Pilate's governorship, 96-99; man 
has no rights as an individual, 173 ; 
the twelve tribes, 180; " lost sheep of 



the house of Israel," 199; attitude 
of Jesus towards the religion of, 211- 
233; law and customs of marriage 
and divorce, 339 ; to be preserved for 
God, 368: likened to the barren fig- 
tree, 400; supposed prediction of her 
sufferings, 401, 402; its exclusive 
privileges thrown open to the heathen, 
541, 542 ; twelve thousand from each 
of the tribes to be saved, according 
to Revelation, 653 ; how represented 
in Revelation, 653, 654; the differences 
between its religion and that of 
Christianity exaggerated, 657. See 
Israelites and Jews. 

"Israel in the Dispersion," explanation 
of the term, 7. 

Israelites, the, 5, 7; their sins to be re- 
moved at the time of the Messiah's 
coming, 49 ; thought much of names, 
60, 61; their recognition of God's 
commandment, 65; their thought of 
God, 103; speak in the synagogues, 
140, 141; fed with manna, 148; use 
of the word "Amen" for closing- 
prayer, 263 ; their thought of heaven 
and the dead, 332, 333; their pride in 
the temple, 360; regard blood as 
sacred, 416. See Israel, and Jews. 

Italy, communities of Jews established 
in, 7; religious freedom of recent 
date, 435 ; date of Paul's journey to, 
630. 

Ital}--, Middle, 1 ; Southern, 1; religious 
freedom of, recent date, 435; date of 
Paul's journey to, 630. 

Ithamar, priests called after him, 44. 

Jacob, 35, 73 ; his dream to be realized 
in Jesus, 675. 

Jacob's Bridge, 311. 

Jacob's Well, 677. 

Jair, storv of the raising of his daugh- 
ter, 286. 

James, son of Alphaeus, a disciple of 
Jesus, 180. 

James, son of Joseph and Mary, 8; 
brother of Jesus, 17, 57, 238 ; inter- 
view with Paul concerning the true 
faith, 18, 19 ; how represented in the 
Book of Acts, 26 ; healed by Jesus, 
85; his character, 91; Jesus appears 
to him after the resurrection, 467, 
468; a distinguished member of the 
community at Jerusalem, 469, 500, 
502, 545, 548, 580 ; meets Paul, 532 ; 
"the Just," 545, 551; recognizes fel- 
lowship with Paul and Barnabas, 549 ; 
sends emissaries to Antioch, 551, 552 ; 
account in Acts of his action in the 
division of the community, 554-556; 
one of the "pillars," 503, 582, 583; 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



*25 



Paul's arrival at Jerusalem an- 
nounced to him, 615: the represen- 
tatives of the community at Jerusa- 
lem with James a party by itself, 
616; tradition of his death, 645; 
great opponent of Paul, 645. 

James, son of Zebedee, a disciple of 
Jesus, 24, 127, 180, 402 ; tradition of 
an additional name given by Jesus, 
181; called by Jesus to follow him, 
127-129; goes into the house of 
Jair, 286; his mother asks Jesus for 
a high place for her sons in the king- 
dom to come, 351, 352; taken by 
Jesus into the garden of Gethsemane, 
421-423; awakened by Jesus, 425; 
falls a victim to the sword, 499, 501; 
legend of the transfiguration, 502- 
504. 

James the Less, 186. 

James, Epistle of, 23, 646, 648, 655 ; its 
authorship, 24; rejected by some 
from the sacred canon, 665. 

James, the Gospel of, apocryphal, 47. 

Jannaaus, Alexander, 3. 

Janus, temple of, 2 ; the doors of the 
temple open in time of war, 2. 

Jasou, 60, 568. 

J moiada, 399. 

Jeremiah, 101, 103, 313, 415, 431, 483; 
receives his call in a vision, 118; 
a prophetic roll, 140. 

Jericho, 298, 322, 337. 

Jericho, city of, 353; named the "City 
of Palms," 352. 

Jericho, ford at, 14. 

Jericho, plain of, 338. 

Jeroboam II., 73. 

Jerome, 521. 

Jerusalem, 2, 13; date of the destruc- 
tion of, 4, 304; the seat of Jewish 
orthodoxy, 6 ; the focus of Israel's 
religious life, 14; headquarters of 
the Apostles, 17 ; visit of Paul, Bar- 
nabas, and Titus, 18, 614-624; de- 
vastation of, 21 ; to be the seat of 
the kingdom of God, 22; visit of 
Joseph and Mary to make offering in 
the temple, 62, 63 ; visit of the Magi, 
68, 69 ; visit of Joseph and Mary at 
the time of the Passover, 80-82 ; ac- 
count of Jesus in the temple according 
to Thomas, 83, 84; public teaching, 
y2, narrowness of discussions, 93, 
94; Jesus decides to go there, 326- 
329, 334, 335; route of Jesus to the 
city, 337, 338, 352, 357, 359, 360 ; the 
great school of orthodoxy, 327 ; Jesus 
on the way to the city, 335-356 ; ap- 
proa?h to/357; the City of God, 359, 
360; entrance of Jesus/ 359-063, 369, 
683 1 the temple, 360 ; a Messianic 



entry, 363 ; reception of Jesus, 363, 
374; Jesus' s project in going there, 
368, 369 ; custom of whitewashing 
the sepulchres, 385 ; supposed fare- 
well of Jesus to the city, 398, 399, 
401; the Via Dolorosa, 449; the 
ladies prepare a numbing drink foi 
prisoners to be crucilied, 450; num- 
ber of houses of prayer, 506 ; visit of 
Paul to plead his cause before the 
community, 547-550; Paul's stay 
at, and experiences in, 614-624; 
account in Acts of Paul's reception 
at, 615-617 ; prophecy concerning, 
in Revelation, 653; the temple to 
be saved, as predicted in Revela- 
tion, 653, 655; the temple destroyed, 
655 ; its fall works against the Jewish- 
Christians, 658 ; how regarded in the 
Fourth Gospel, 672; after the fall, 
Christianity centres at Rome, 660; 
Jesus questioned as to the true place 
of worship, 677. 

Jerusalem, a community of believers 
in Jesus established here, 56, 57, 
481, 482, 484-502; its nickname, 
489; its communal life and actions, 
490-493 ; wonders worked by the 
community of Jesus, 490-492, 494- 
499; differing elements, 505; perse- 
cution of, 509, 511; community scat- 
tered into other lands, 509, 514, 516, 
517 ; two schools in the commu- 
nity, 513, 514; persecuted bv Paul, 
520; Paul's persecution of, 524-526; 
collision among and division into two 
parties, 544-562 ; account in Acts of 
the division in the community, 553- 
561; Paul's efforts to collect money 
for, 550, 601-604; three distinct par- 
ties in the community, 616. 

Jerusalem, University of, 6, 93, 140. 

Jesus of Nazareth, historical sketch of, 
8-15 ; a division among his follow- 
ers, 16, 17-22; difference in the 
schools of his followers is stamped 
on the old Christian literature, 22- 
26 ; preached at Antioch by Stephen's 
party, 17 ; little known of his child- 
hood and youth, 27, 30, 37; traditions 
of, 29-31; descent of, 35-42; pedi- 
gree of, 56 ; contradiction in the text 
of Matthew regarding his descent, 
35, 36 ; his birthplace, 37, 39 ; account 
of miraculous birth, 40-42 ; story of 
his birth, 51-54; story of his birth 
examined, 54-59; difference in the 
accounts of his birth given in Mat- 
thew and Luke, 55 ; emblematic 
meaning of the story of his birth, 
57-59; his birth foretold to Marv, 
51; his birth at Bethlehem, 53, 54; 



726 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



narratives of his life, drawn partly 
from Old Testament prophecies, 37- 
40 ; use of texts in the Old. Testament 
by the commentators to explain cer- 
tain accounts in the Gospels, 72-74; 
use of passage? in the Old Testa- 
ment relative to lite jf 83, 119, 120; 
passage cited from the second Isaiah 
descriptive of, 196, 197; his tes- 
timony of John as Elijah, 49, 51 ; 
contemporaries of, expect Elijah to 
appear before the coming of the Mes- 
siah, 50; his relation to John the 
Baptist, 55 ; represented a citizen of 
the world, 58; his first disciples 
Jews, 58; an Israelite, 59, 60; re- 
ceives his name, 60 ; frequent use of 
the name, 60; Greek and Hebrew 
forms of name, 60 ; the name inter- 
changed with that of -Joshua, 60 ; sig- 
nification of name, 61; circumcised 
according to the law, 60 ; presented 
at the temple according to Luke, 62, 
63 ; Christmas Day, 66-68 ; see 
Christmas Day; story of his youth, 
according to Matthew, 68-71; the 
fitory of the wise men from the East, 
158-78 ; his journeys to and sojourn in 
!Egypt, 70, 72, 74, 75; discrepancies 
i n the accounts of Matthew and Luke, 
V2 ; interpretation of the story of the 
Magi by the Church, 74-76 ; ac- 
(ounts in the Apocryphal Gospels, 
) 6-78 ; legend of a sycamore tree in 
Egypt, 78; feast in commemoration 
( f his birth and baptism, 78 ; but 
1 ittle known of his youth, 79 ; in the 
temple at the age of twelve, 79-82; 
story of, in the temple, examined 
and considered, 82, 83 ; accounts of, 
in the Apocryphal Gospels, 83-87; 
account of his education in the Apoc- 
rypha, 85 ; rejection of accounts con- 
tradictory to his humanity, 87 ; scenes 
and circumstances of his youth, 87- 
92; family of Joseph and Mary, 90; 
worked as a carpenter, 90 ; his home 
life, 90-92; uses the word Father to 
designate God, 82, 83, 91, 190, 196 ; 
his thought of the Father, 248, 249, 
685, 686 ; his early studies and reli- 
gious development, 92-95; his influ- 
ence at Nazareth, 112; his mention 
of John, 111; leaves his home. 112; 
goes to John the Baptist, 112, 113; 
meets John, 112, 113, 673-675; bap- 
tism of, 112, 113; account in Mat- 
thew of his baptism, 117, 120; ac- 
count of his baptism in the Gospel of 
the Hebrews, 120, 121; the baptism 
nf, a perplexity to Christian com- 
munities, 115-117; the story of his 



baptism critically examined, 115 
121; how impressed by John, 113, 
114; resolves upon his work, 114, 
115; declines the name of " good 
Master," 116; account in Mark of 
his receiving the Messiahship, 118, 
120; descent of the Holy Spirit on, 
118, 120, 674; in the Holy Spirit, 669 
672; see Holy Spirit; receives the 
news of John's" imprisonment, 123 ; re- 
turns to Galilee, 123, 124; begins his 
work, 123-126 ; dislike of Judaea, 124 • 
his choice of a place to begin his 
work, 124, 125; his message to the 
people, 125, 126; probable date of 
his beginning to Avork, 126; spirit 
and characteristics of his preaching, 
32, 33, 130, 131, 137-139, 141- 
172, 210, 220, 226, 227, 257, 258, 356, 
680-682, 685, 686 ; central thought of 
his preaching, 156, 157, 172-177 ; his 
savings and warnings, 159, 187-190, 
194, 226-231, 234-236, 238, 240, 241. 
244, 245, 278-281, 330, 344, 347-349^ 
394, 395, 397, 402, 426, 427 ; his gos- 
pel of love, 173-177, 229-231, 233, 
691, 692 ; the Golden Rule, 220 ; 
preaches repentance, 348, 349; iiis 
belief in immortality, 380 ; doubt as 
to his age, 126; meets Simon and 
Andrew, 127, 674; calls his disciples, 
127-129, 178, 182, 183; the disciple 
whom Jesus loved, 666-693 ; who is 
the disciple whom Jesus loved ? 
667, 668; account of his first meet- 
ing his loved disciple, 673-675 ; 
identity of the disciple whom he 
loved, 675; purpose of the disciple 
whom Jesus loved, 690-693; sym- 
bolism of his washing the feet 
of his disciples, 684 ; see Apos- 
tles, Disciples, and Twelve; account 
of fishing in the boat with Simon, 

128, 129; the wonderful draught of 
fishes, 128, 129; emblematic stories, 

129, 130; a Sabbath at Capernaum, 

130, 131, 136, 137 ; heals the sick and 
blind, 131, 135, 148, 202-205, 208- 
210, 216, 217, 308-311, 355, 356, 367, 
678-681; in the synagogues, 131, 132, 
140, 141; the casting out of devils, 
131, 192, 193, 574-576 ; John asks him 
about the man casting out devils in 
his name, 583, 588; story of casting 
out devils, 586, 587 ; the story 
considered, 587, 588; goes into the 
desert to pray, 136, 138 ; declares his 
mission, 137 ; his departure from 
Capernaum, 136, 137 ; journeys 
through Galilee, 137 ; visits Chora- 
zin, 137; visits Bethsaida, 137, 209, 
282, 311, 312; comes to Nazareth, 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



121 



137; his teaching in parables, 142; 
his reasons for using parables, 143, 
144 ; the parable of the laborer, and 
the treasure, 144, 145 ; the parable of 
the pearl of great price, 145 ; the 
miracle of the loaves an" rhhes, 148, 
149 ; journeys through Galilee, 149; 
parable of the householder, 150 ; sig- 
nificance of the Kingdom of God, 
150-152, 154, 171, 351, 352; ques- 
tioned as to the time of its coming, 
288, 289; appealed to regarding the 
members of the Messianic Kingdom, 
292-295 ; parables, relating to the 
Kingdom of God, 296-300, 304, 305, 
307-309 ; questioned concerning the 
Kingdom of God and salvation, 342- 
346 ; likens himself to a husbandman, 
152; his parables of the leaven and 
the mustard seed, 152; parable of the 
sower, 153 ; likens the Kingdom of 
God to a net with fishes, 154 ; the par- 
able of the houses built on sand and 
rock, 154, 155; the beatitudes, 155- 
159 ; the Sermon on the Mount, 156, 
163, 164, 168-172, 224, 231, 339; the 
parable of the debtor, 161, 162; the 
parable of the talents, 165, 166 ; sfory 
of the last judgment probably not 
due to him, 166, 167; path marked 
out for his followers, 168-172; influ- 
ence of his principles upon his con- 
duct, 172 ; journeys through Galilee, 
177, 178; number of his hearers, 178; 
the disciples, 178; his relations with 
his disciples, 178-180 ; his friends, 
178-196; taught his disciples no doc- 
trine, 179 ; possible stress on the 
number twelve, 180 ; names of his 
lisciples. 180, 181; the three disciples 
•nost intimate with him, 181; his di- 
rections to his disciples, 182 ; his 
Messiahship at first unknown to his 
disciples, 182 ; sends his disciples 
forth to work, 182-184; origin of the 
prohibition of the preaching the gos- 
pel to none except the Jews, 183, 184; 
his immediate followers not confined 
to the chosen Twelve, 184, 185 ; jour- 
neys in Galilee, 185 ; the Jewish 
women deeply impressed by his 
preaching, 185 ; accompanied by 
women on his last journey from 
Galilee to Jerusalem, 185 ; the women 
friends of, 185-187 ; his stay with 
Martha and Mary, 186, 187, 672 ; nar- 
ratives showing what he expected of 
his followers, 187-190; use of the 
word "'Cross," and its symbolism, 
189; his hopes with regard'to his dis- 
ciples and their realization, 190-196; 
his mental and spiritual isolation, 



195, 196; his influence over sinners, 
196-200 ; his greatness, 196 ; regards it 
as his special mission to save the sin- 
ners, 199; his relations with sinners, 
245, 246, 275; his treatment of sin- 
ners offensive to the Pharisees, 245, 
246; his association with the publi- 
cans and sinners, 200-210; his favor- 
ite walk at Capernaum, 200; his 
metaphor of the physician and his 
patients, 202; his metaphor of the 
phvsician, 208-210 ; the storv of the 
healiug of the leper, 202, 203; the 
story of the paralytic, 203, 204 ; 
emblematic meaning of the story, 
204, 205; the story of Mary of 
Magdala, 205-208 ; at the house of Si - 
mon the Pharisee, 205-208 ; a parable 
of the debtor given to Simon the Phar- 
isee, 206; called Son of David, 35, 
45, 20b, 518; his reference to the say- 
ing "Messiah is David's son," 383; 
the title of the Son of God, 670, 671; 
declares himself the " Son of Man," 
199, 214, 252, 314, 315, 325, 330, 331, 
350, 352, 354, 414, 426, 432; the para- 
ble of the woman and the lost coin, 
210 ; three apparent contradictions in 
the narratives of his life, 211 ; bis atti- 
tude toward the religion of Israel, 211- 
233; his observance of the Sabbath, 
212, 214-219, 251, 275, 679, 681; his 
demand that form and spirit shall 
harmonize, 213, 214 ; the parables of 
the mended garment and the new and 
old wine, 213, 214; his rebuke to the 
Pharisees for his action on the Sab- 
bath day, 214 ; his position regarding 
sacrifice, 218, 219; parables of the 
sheep and of the ox, 216, 217; mean- 
ing of the expression, "the Law and 
the Prophets," 220, 221; his attitude 
towards the Law, 220-232; places 
humanity above the precepts of the 
Law, 276; his exhortations concern- 
ing praver, almsgiving, and fasts, 
222-223; his praver, 261, 262; his 
thought about prayer, 261, 262, 263- 
267; the "Lord's Prayer," 262-265; 
mentions the Scribes and Pharisees 
with respect, 224: his relations with 
the Scribes and Pharisees, 241-252, 
276-281; his God not the God of 
the Old Testament, 230 ; parable of 
the Good Samaritan, 230, 298-300; 
the Good Smaritan, scene of, 357; the 
miracle of water turned to wine, 232, 

233, 676 ; his reception at Nazareth, 

234, 235, 237-239, 240; his preaching 
at Nazareth, 234-230, 238; cites the 
times of Elisha and Elijah, 235, 2J6: 
his visit to his mother's house, 237, 



7-28 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



238 : sought by his family at Caper- 
naum, 239, 240: his spiritual isola- 
tion. 240, 241, 291, 292 ; the parable 
oi tne prodigal son, 246-249 ; his 
conception of Goa's love to his chil- 
dren, 248, 249 ; parable of the Publi- 
can and Pharisee, 249-251 ; his simile 
regarding the Pharisees, 252; close 
connection with John, 253 ; inter- 
rogated by the disciples of John to 
know of his identity, 253-255 ; re- 
ception of his preaching by the 
masses, 258-259 ; the expression 
"he that was to come " considered, 
254, 255; his message to John, 254, 
255; his sayings about John the Bap- 
tist, 256 ; his great popularity, 256- 
258; his disappointment at the su- 
perficial effect of his work, 258, 259 ; 
the image of the fig-tree, 259; the 
source of his strength, 259-270 ; his 
warning to Chorazin, Bethsaida, 
and Capernaum, 259, 303, 543; the 
story of the storm on the Lake and 
its teaching, 260, 261; his walking 
on the water, 268, 269 ; scene expla- 
natory of this, 437; his enemies 
form plots against him, 270 ; death 
of John the Baptist, 270-273; hears 
of John's death, 272 ; his ac- 
tion on hearing of John the Bap- 
tist's death, 273, 274; determines to 
go to Jerusalem, 275; hears that 
Herod means to kill him, 275 ; inter- 
rogated by the Pharisees concerning 
his neglect of "oral law," 276-281; J 
cites a saying of Isaiah to the 
Pharisees, 278 ; cites the Fifth 
Commandment as the word of God, 
278, 280; goes to Tyre, 281; goes 
to Sidon, 282 ; at Dalmanutha, 
282 ; goes to Magdala, 282; goes 
to Caesarea-Philippi, 282, 283 ; doubt 
as to his real wanderings, 282, 283 ; 
not a fanatic, 283; the demand for 
miracles, 284; one of the causes of 
his rejection by his people, 284, 285, 
287-292 ; his work assumes a new 
aspect, 284 ; required to show a 
"sign," 285, 288-292, 302, 303; the 
miracle of raising the dead, 286, 287, 
682, 683; restores the spiritually 
dead to life, 286 ; his relations with 
the heathen, 293-311; parable of the 
vineyard and the laborers, 296-298 ; 
his threats to the Israelites, 301-303, 
305-307 ; takes ship at Dalmanutha, 
311; the Messiah, 311-324,671; the 
interpretation of the Messiahship, 315- 
320 ; his journey to the north of 
Palestine, 312; his questioning the 
disciples as to whom they thought 



him, 312-314; the opinions of 
people as to his identity, 313 , the 
opinions of his disciples, 313, S14; 
the story of Simon receiving the 
keys of heaven not genuine, 319; 
at Capernaum, 320 ; story of the tax 
in support of the Temple, 320 ; in the 
wilderness, 321 ; the story of his temp- 
tations, 321-324 ; the place of the con- 
flict called "Quarantania," 322; con- 
versations with his disciples connected 
with the Messiah, 325-331 ; foreshad- 
ows his fate, 325, 327-335, 347, 349, 
405-407, 413, 414, 415, 416; decides 
to go to Jerusalem, 326-329, 334, 335 ; 
his sense of duty for extended preach- 
ing, 326-329 ; predicts a resurrection, 
328, 332-334, 350; his utterances on 
the resurrection, 379, 380; struggle 
with desire for self-preservation, 329- 
331, 334, 335, 347, 349, 422-425 ; re- 
turn of Jesus, the central thought of 
the apostolic age, 333, 334; change in 
his preaching, 334, 335 ; his ministry 
at Galilee ended, 335; return to Caper- 
naum, 335 ; on the way to Jerusalem, 
335-356; leaves Capernaum, 337; his 
route to Jerusalem, 337, 338, 352, 357, 
359, 360; encounter with Pharisees 
concerning marriage and divorce, 338- 
341 ; his views of marriage, 341, 342 ; 
his blessing little children, 341, 342; 
his view of women, 341 ; account of the 
young man who desired eternal life, 
343, 344 ; his depression, 347 ; repudi- 
ates the Jewish idea of divine "judg- 
ments," 348; parable of the fig-tree, 
349; predicts a resurrection, 350; his 
disciples do not understand him, 351 ; 
greets Zacchseus, 353, 354; his recep- 
tion at Jericho, 353 ; at Jericho, 353, 
354; story of Bartimaeus, 354-356; 
restores sight, 355, 356 ; approach to 
Jerusalem, 357; the parable of the 
mime or pounds, 358, 359 ; sends for 
an ass, 359-362 ; rides into Jerusalem 
on an ass, 359, 360, 683; remarks 
upon the account of the entry into 
Jerusalem, 360-363, 369; his recep- 
tion at Jerusalem, 363 ; at the temple, 
364-368; the selling in the temple, 
365-366 ; turns out the traders from 
the temple, 365-367; his hope to 
convert foreign Jews, 368 ; his ex- 
tended preaching, 368; the project 
with which he entered Jerusalem, 368, 
369 ; his contemplated work at Jeru- 
salem, 369; goes eveiy night to Beth- 
any, 370, 419 ; preaches in the temple 
court, 371; parable spoken to the 
members of the Sanhedrim, 373 ; his 
conversation with the members of th« 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



729 



Sanhedrim in the temple, 371-373; 
his preaching at Jerusalem, 373, 374 ; 
his reception at Jerusalem, 374: his 
enemies, 375; questioned as to law- 
fulness of tribute to the Emperor, 
375, 376 ; encounters with his oppo- 
nents in Jerusalem, 375-382; the 
Scribes bring the adulteress to him for 
judgment, 376-378; questioned con- 
cerning the resurrection, 379, 380 ; 
questioned regarding the command- 
ments, 381, 382; his controversial 
triumph, 382; his attacks upon the 
Scribes, 383-386; his remarks on 
swearing and on tithe-paying, 384, 
385 ; the parable of Lazarus, 387-389 ; 
the parable of the vineyard and the 
husbandmen, 389-391 : declares his 
high office to his enemies, 391 ; his 
life in danger, 392 ; among his friends, 
393-407; at Bethany with friends, 
393, 398, 682, 683 ; the hostile feeling 
towards him, 392; cares for the moral 
education of his disciples, 393-395, 
397, 398; the widow's mite, 394; the 
parable of the rich man and his 
steward, 396, 397; his supposed fare- 
well to Jerusalem, 398, 399, 401; the 
value set on small things, 394; his 
efforts fail at Jerusalem, 400 ; story 
of the withering of the tig-tree, 400; 
said to have predicted the sufferings 
of Israel, 401, 402; warnings of the 
coming crisis, 402, 403; parable of 
the foolish virgins, 403, 405 ; anointed 
by the woman with the alabaster 
vase at the house of Simon, 405-407 ; 
his plan for the celebration of the Pass- 
over, 407, 408, 412; the last evening, 
407-418 ; observes a change in the 
bearing of Judas of Karioth, 409 ; rec- 
ognizes his betrayer, 680 ; the treach- 
ery of Judas, 409-412 ; comes to the 
supper with his disciples, 412 ; scene of 
the last supper, 413-416 ; the " Lord's 
Supper," 415-418, 684, 685; gives 
the bread and wine to his disciples, 
415, 416 ; symbolism of the act, 415- 
418; his reference to Moses concern- 
ing "the blood of the covenant," 
416 ; his conversation with the Twelve 
after the feast, 419, 420; farewell 
and prayer for his disciples, 685 ; 
misses Judas from the Twelve, 419 ; 
his prediction to Simon Peter, 420; 
goes into the Garden of Gethsemane, 
421; his suffering in the garden, 421- 
425 ; his prayer in the garden, 422. 
423; his loneliness, 423; the kiss of 
betrayal given bv Judas, 425, 426; 
betrayed by Judas. 684, 685 ; his life 
in danger, 083 ; seized by the guard, i 

31* 



425, 686; arouses his disciples, 425 
the man who followed him with a 
linen cloth thrown round him, 427 ; 
taken before the Sanhedrim, 428; his 
trial, 428-435, 686; his trial consid- 
ered, 433-435; accusations brought 
against him, 430-433; attempt to 
make him declare his Messianic dig- 
nity, 432 ; his answer to Caiaphas, 
432; his conduct, 433; his sentence, 
433, 438; denied by Peier, 436, 437; 
taken before Pilate, 439; his trial be 
fore Pilate, 439-443, 687, 688; the 
accusations brought against him, 440, 
441; the "King of the Jews," 440, 
442, 443, 447, 459; Jesus Barabbas 
suggested by the Sanhedrim to be 
liberated, 442; various accounts of 
his trial before Pilate, 443-445; sen- 
tenced to the cross, 443, 688 ; time of 
the crucifixion, 447; account of his 
going before Herod given by Luke, 
444, 445 ; treatment received by him 
after his sentence, 445, 446; led to 
Golgotha, 688; his offence recorded 
on a board in Latin, Greek, and 
Hebrew, 447, 451 ; inscription over his 
cross, 688 ; the inscription written in 
three languages, 688 ; the meaning of 
the letters I. N. R. I., 688; his cross 
given to Simon of Cyrene to carry, 

447, 448 ; the Via Dolorosa and the 
torture of Jesus, 447-449 ; the weep- 
ing of the women, 448; legend of 
Veronica, 448; story of Ahasuerus, 

448, 449 ; the faithful women at the 
crucifixion, 451, 688; his farewell to 
his mother, 688; the crucifixion, 447- 
461; forms of the cross, 449, 450; the 
horrors of a crucifixion, 449, 450 ; the 
robbers crucified with him, 447, 451, 
453, 459, 688 ; the scene of execution, 
450, 451; refuses the cup of numbing 
drink, 450, 451 ; his torture on the 
cross, 451-455; his strength and pa- 
tience on the cross, 452-455; prayer 
said to have been uttered by him on 
the cross, 453 ; utterances on the cross 
recorded by the Evangelists, 453-455; 
the taunts of his Messiahship, 452, 
453; the people taunt him about 
Elijah, 454; offered the vinegar, 454, 
688; his death, 688; stories of won- 
ders at the time of his death, 455-457 ; 
honors paid to his remains, 458 ; cut 
down from the cross, 459 ; the symbol 
of atonement and purification in the 
blood and water flowing from his 
side, 689 ; his body given to Joseph 
of Arimathea, 459; buried bv Joseph 
of Arimathea, 459, 460, 689"; his tri- 
umph secure, 460, 461; the women 



730 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



at his sepulchre, 460; the resurrec- 
tion, 462-467; different accounts of 
the resurrection, 464-480; passage 
from an epistle of Paul relating 
to the resurrection, 467, 468, 461)"; 
passage from Hebrews referring to 
the resurrection, 468 ; another story of 
the resurrection, 473 ; story of the 
resurrection examined and considered, 
467-477; arises from the dead, 689; 
stories of bis appearing to his dis- 
ciples, 464-477 ; story of his appear- 
ing to Mary and Mary Magdalene, 
469, 470; story of his appearing to 
the women, 469, 473-476 ; account in 
John of his appearance to the dis- 
ciples and his word to Peter, 666, 667 ; 
appears to Mary and the Twelve, 690; 
his reported instructions to the dis- 
eiples, 471, 472 ; his last words to his 
disciples, 690; command about bap- 
tism, 472, 473; time which he was 
said to have remained on earth, 476 ; 
story of the seal and its removal 
from his tomb, 478, 479; the ascen- 
sion, 476, 477 ; community of believ- 
ers formed at Jerusalem, 481, 482, 
484-502; probable conversion of his 
family, 482 ; origin of baptism, 488 ; 
nickname of the community at Jeru- 
salem, 489 ; life and practices of the 
community at Jerusalem, 490-493 ; 
his Messiahship as realized by his 
disciples, 493; legend of his trans- 
figuration, 502, 503 ; his cause shaken 
free from Mosaic law, 502 ; preached 
as the Messiah to the Samaritans, 
514; story of the heathen woman im- 
ploring help for her daughter, 518; 
his gospel preached throughout the 
ancient world, 519 ; Paul not in any 
way concerned in his death, 520, 521 ; 
story of Paul's conversion, 522-524; 
Paul's conversion, accounts taken 
from his own letters, 524-528; signifi- 
cation of the name Christ, 536 ; story 
of the appointment of the Seventy, 
542 ; sayings imputed to him by the 
Jewish-Christians, 584, 585 ; sayings 
imputed to him by the Pauline- 
Christians, 586 ; compared with 
Paul, 642, 643; how represented in 
Revelation, 646; story of the widow 
and the judge, 656 ; how understood 
by the Ebionites, 657 ; did not intend 
to found a new religion, 650 ; a sect 
drawing a distinction between Jesus 
and Christ, 664; peculiarity of the 
distinction, 664; growth of his work, 
670; speculations applied to, in the 
Fourth Gospel, 670; regarded as the 
Deity, 670, 671 ; development of con- 



ceptions of Christianity, 671 ; rise oi 
the doctrine of the Trinity, 671j 
finds Philip. 674; the lamb, 674; 
the Paschal lamb, 684, 689 ; the 
water turned to wine, 676; mis- 
understood in the Fourth Gospel, 
676 ; interview with Nicodemus, 676, 
677; the interview with the Samar- 
itan woman, 677; how received in 
Samaria and Galilee, 678; at Beth- 
esda, 678, 679 ; feeds the multitude at 
Galilee, 679 ; those acknowledging 
him as the Christ to be laid under a 
ban, 681; at Bethany, 682, 683; re- 
treats to Ephraim, 683 : retreats into 
the transjordanic regions, 682; ac- 
count of raising Lazarus from the 
dead, 682, 683; a foreshadowing of 
the glory to come from the faith of 
the heathen, 683 ; story of Lazarus, 
its symbolism, 683. See Christ. 

Jesus Barabbas, 60 ; a prisoner sug- 
gested for liberation by the Sanhe- 
drim, 442, 687. 

Jesus, son of Sirach, 60; wisdom of, 
enters into Alexandrian philosophy, 
669, 670. 

Jew, the wandering, 448, 449. 

"Jewish Antiquities," the, 27, 108, n. 

Jewish-Christian school, the, 18. 

Jewish-Christians preach the Law at 
Antioch, 18; oppose Paul, 19, 579, 
580, 582-588, 592, 603, 610, 640, 644- 
650; gain accessions from Paul's par- 
ty, 21 ; change their attitude toward 
the Heathen-Christians, 21, 22; their 
position as stated in the book of Rev- 
elation, 22; those called Ebionites, 
22, 158 ; their writings in the New 
Testament, 22-24 ; their writings, 47, 
49, 50, 55, 117, 181, 183, 398, 618, 
646-649; the later communities call 
Jesus the son of Joseph, 57; their 
views regarding the heathen, 293- 
295, 307; prohibitions concerning 
food, 556; at Corinth, 597; popula- 
tion at Rome, 635; a parable in their 
writings showing their dislike to gen- 
tile modes of life, 643, 644; Paul 
designated as u a hostile man," 644; 
epistles addressed to, in support of 
Paulinism, 649, 650; sink into minor- 
ity, 658 ; ideas reconciled with those 
of Paul, 658-661. See Ebionites. 

Jewish House, arrangement of a, 164. 

Jews, date of their throne being secured 
by the Idurnasan Herod, 3 ; their 
hatred of Herod, 3 ; their land divid- 
ed, but again united under Herod 
Agrippa I., date of, 4; the tumults 
and dissatisfaction an* ug them, 4, 
5; the '-Zealots," 4, 5, 6, 181, 378, 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



731 



their supreme authority in civil and 
ecclesiastical affairs, 5'; the Sanhe- 
drim, 5 ; retain their national and 
religious allegiance, 7; their nation 
largely scattered over the ancient 
world^ 7; their judges, 5; the Jew- 
ish monks, 6; their converts called 
"Proselytes," 7; a school of Jewish 
philosophy, 7; growth of a new Jew- 
ish literature, 7; the outcasts befriend- 
ed by Jesus, 9; attend the Passover 
in large numbers, 14; differences in 
their prejudices, 16; persecute Paul, 
19 ; their fanaticism opposed by Paul, 
19, 20 ; oppose Paul, - 20 ; connection 
of the Heathen-Christian religion 
with their own. 21; take a higher 
stand than the Proselytes, 23 ; their 
passion for preserving pedigrees, 
35; their superstition, 46, 133, 134; 
their conception of God and heaven, 
46 ; obtain their angelology from the 
Persians. 46 ; expect the return of 
Elijah in person, 49, 50 ; their belief 
concerning the Christ, 58 ; the first dis- 
ciples of Jesus, 58 ; the Magi hear that 
their king is born, 68, 69 ; high esti- 
mate of the father's authority, 83; 
the Synagogue, 93; special attention 
paid to the education of children, 93 ; 
exasperated by Pilate, 96, 97 ; dislike 
to use the word God, 103 ; their idea 
of the Messianic age, 109; many did 
not expect a human king in the 
Messiah, 109 ; their thought of the 
Holy Spirit, 118 ; their belief regard- 
; ng epilepsy, 132, 133 ; possession of 
iv evil spirits, 132, 133; the prophet- 
ic rolls, 140; the Jewish ban, 157; 
arrangements of a Jewish house, 164; 
society outside the circle of the dev- 
otees, 171 ; the gospel to be preached 
only to them, 183, 184; the women 
deeplyimpressed by Jesus's preaching, 
185 ; their hatred of publicans, 198 ; the 
outcasts of from their society, 199 ; im- 
portance of fasts, 212 ; regulations of 
their religion, 212 ; their observance 
of the Sabbath, 214-219 ; importance 
of sacrifices, 219; the Law and the 
Prophets, 220, 221 ; three schools of 
religion, 242 ; custom of kneeling in 
prayer unknown to the .lews, 250; 
Jewish prayers, 263, 264; "oral 
law," 276, 277; customs regarding 
eating and bathing, 276-278; their 
feeling regarding the details of 
the Law, 280; their thirst for the 
marvellous, 284-292; customs of 
mourning, 286; controversy concern- 
ing admission to the Messianic king- 
loin, 202-311; endeavor to perplex 



Jesus, 298: the threats of Jesus, 301 
303, 305-307; customs relating to 
feasts, 304, 305, 308; the "high 
priests," 371 ; Jesus comes into con- 
flict with their religion, 435, 438; the 
" King of the JeAvs," 440, 442, 443, 
447, 459; customs of carrying out 
an execution, 447, 448; crucifixion 
foreign to their penal code, 449 ; the 
custom of giving a prisoner for the 
cross a numbing potion, 450 ; did not 
permit any one to go unburied, 458; 
their view of death. 463 ; their views 
of heaven, 463 ; the community at 
Jerusalem observed the Jewish ordi- 
nances, 493 ; diversity of feeling with 
foreign Jews, 505; Grecian Jews, 

505, 506, 511, 517, 521; the Libertini, 

506, 507; foreign synagogues, 506, 
507 ; their opinion of the Samaritans, 
515 ; Paul a Jew by descent, 520 ; 
their dietary laws, 551, 554; their 
ideas of tombs and of swine, 575; 
their oath to slay Paul, 623; their 
charges against Paul, 619-622, 625- 
629; laws of marriage and divorce, 
647 ; account in John of their recep- 
tion of John the Baptist, 673-675; 
Jerusalem their chief place of wor- 
ship, 677; believed Jesus to be the 
son of Joseph, 679; their reverence 
for the Scriptures, 679 ; their unbelief 
in Jesus, 684; their custom of releas- 
ing a prisoner at the Passover, 687, 
688 ; wish the crucified bodies to be 
taken down before the Passover, 688 ; 
their custom of burial, 689. See 
Israel and Israelites. 

Jews, Feast of the, 672. 

Jews, Law of the, how regarded in the 
Fourth Gospel, 672. See Law. 

Jezebel, 647. 

Jezreel, plain of, 90. 

Joachim, father of Marv, account of, 47. 

Joanna, a follower of Jesus, 186. 

Job, philosophy of, enters into Alexan- 
drian philosophy, 669, 670. 

Joel, fulfilment of his prophecy, 486. 

Johanan, signification of name, 44. 

Johanna, 473. 

John, the Apostle, 17; a prominent 
member in the community at Jerusa- 
lem 17, 18, 19, 548; son of Zebedee, 
127; called by Jesus to follow him, 
127-129, 180, 402, 408; tradition 
of an additional name given by 
Jesus, 181; his emblematic descrip- 
tion of Jesus's work, 232, 233; goes 
into the house of Jair, 286 ; his mother 
asks for him a high place in the king- 
dom to come, 351, 352 ; commissioned 
by Jesus to prepare the Last Supper 



732 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



408, 409 ; the Last Supper, 412-418 ; 
taken by Jesus into the garden of 
Gethseniane, 421-423 ; wakened by 
Jesus, 425; at the Beautiful Gate, 
494 ; brought before the Sanhedrim, 
495 ; legend of the transfiguration, 
502-504; one of the ''pillars," 503, 
545, 582, 583, 668 ; recognizes fellow- 
ship with Paul and Barnabas, 549; 
his appeal to Jesus concerning the man 
casting out devils in his name, 583, 
588; story showing Paul's equality 
with him, 589: story of Simon the 
magician, 617, 618 ; date of his death, 
645 ; tradition of his death, 645 ; 
Avritings ascribed to him, 645 ; prob- 
ably not the author of Revelation, 
652, 653; the belief that he would 
never die, 667, 668; date of his be- 
ing supposed to be the disciple whom 
Jesus loved, 668 ; the historical John 
not to be recognized in the author of 
the Fourth Gospel, 668, 669. 

John, the Apostle, writings ascribed to 
him, 645 ; the Apocalypse, or Revela- 
tion, 22, 24, 398, 399, 401, 645 ; its con- 
tents, 646, 647, 652-655; rejected by 
some from the sacred canon, 665*; 
the three Epistles of, 664; extracts 
from, 693 ; the Antichrist in the 
Epistles, 664. 

John, First Epistle of, its authorship, 
24, 692, 693. 

John, Second Epistle of, its authorship, 
24; rejected by some from the sacred 
canon, 665. 

John, Third Epistle of, its authorship, 
24; rejected by some from the sacred 
canon, 665. 

John, Gospel of, its contents and author- 
ship, 24, 25, 27-33, 645; does not speak 
of Bethlehem or the miraculous birth, 
56 ; reference to Jesus's age, 126 ; last 
chapter of the Gospel of, 666; last 
chapter, meaning of, 607-669; the 
Gospel according to, 666-693. 

John the Baptist, 8; his work unlike 
that of Jesus, 9, 12; his birth and 
youth, 42-51 ; story of his birth, 43- 
46 ; story of his birth considered, 46- 
51; signification of name, 44; proph- 
ecies concerning him, 44, 45, 49, 51; 
the fate of, indicated in the Old Tes- 
tament, 47, 48; assumes the work 
and place of the Elijah, 51 ; his rela- 
tion to Jesus, 55; the teacher of Je- 
sus, 95 ; time at which he began his 
public life, 96 ; comes forward to help 
Israel, 98; his father's name un- 
known, 99; his manner of life, 99, 
100; his personal appearance, 101; 
the spirit of his preaching, 101-108; 



his conception of God, 102, 103; be- 
comes a prophet, 103, 104; performs 
the ceremony of baptism, 104, 105, 
107, 108 ; baptism symbolic, 105 ; nib 
idea of baptism, 104, 105; origin oi 
baptism, 488 ; his hearers, 1 05- 108 ; 
his disciples, 108, 178 ; his expres- 
sion "Tribe of Vipers," 105, 110; a 
historical character, 108 ; dependent 
on Malachi for conceptions of the fu- 
ture, 109 ; represented as proclaiming 
himself the precursor of the Messiah, 
109, 110; the precursor of Christ, 
109, 110; a representative of the 
Law, 111; tradition does not ascribe 
to him miracles, 111; how regarded 
by Jesus, 111; meets Jesus, 113; his 
character, 113; his influence upon 
Jesus, 113, 114; accounts of his bap- 
tizing Jesus, 113, 114, 116-121 ; his 
work at Perasa, 122; thrown into 
prison, 122; his conception of the 
kingdom of God different from that 
of Jesus, 150, 151; his stress on the 
last judgment, 151; particular about 
fasts, 212; his intimate connection 
with Jesus, 253 ; sends to Jesus, from 
his prison, to know of his identity, 
253-255; the answer from Jesus, 
254-255; sayings of Jesus concern- 
ing him, 256; account of his death, 
270-273 ; his body buried by his dis- 
ciples, 272, 273 ; mentioned'by Jesus 
in the temple, 372 ; how represented 
in the Fourth Gospel, 673; account 
in John of his coming, 673-675. 

John Mark, 535, 537, 555. See Mark. 

Joiners, the business of some of the 
Rabbis, 90. 

Jona, father of Simon and Andrew, 
127, 128, 180, 319, 674. 

Jona, the prophet, 291; "the sign of 
Jona," 291. 302, 303. 

Joppa, 557, 558, 560. 

Jordan, the, 4, 8, 14, 99, 124, 311 r 312 , 
baptism in, 104, 105 ; Jesus goes to 
the Jordan to see John the Baptist, 
112-114; Jesus baptized in, 113. 

Jordan Valley, breadth of, the, 337 ; 
heat in summer, 337. 

Joseph, 8, 35; pedigree of, 39; takes 
Mary as his Avife, 42; obliged to go 
to Bethlehem, 52, 53 ; birth of Jesus, 
53; goes with Jesus to the temple, 
62, 63; the visit of the Magi, 69; 
hastens to Nazareth, 70; his visions, 
70, 71; settles in Nazareth, 71 ; day 
of his death, 71 ; " History of Joseph 
the Carpenter," 71, 72; sainted by 
the Catholic Church, 72 ; his title 
in the Catholic Church, 72; accounts 
in the Apocryphal Gospels, 71, 72, 77, 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



733 



8o; his familv, 90; a good parent, 
91. 

Joseph, a brother of Jesus, 238. 

Joseph, son of Sabbas, 484. 

Joseph, the Levite, 490; receives the 
name of Barnabas, 490. See Barna- 
bas. 

Joseph Caiaphas. See Caiaphas. 

Joseph of Arimathea, 185: asks for the 
body of Jesus, 458, 459; takes Jesus 
from the cross and buries him, 459, 
460, 689. 

Josephus, Flavins, 27, 73, 74, 99, 108 re, 
399 ; his mention of persons named 
Jesus, 60; his mention of his own 
boyhood, 82 ; account of Samuel, 83 ; 
mention of Galilee and its population, 
88 ; does not mention Nazareth, 89 ; 
speaks of education, 93; his mention 
of Banus, 100; his mention of bap- 
tism, 104 ; his mention of John the 
Baptist, 108, 109; mention of John 
the Baptist's imprisonment, 122; his 
mention of the Sea of Galilee, 125; 
mentions "possession" by devils, 
132; his mention of exorcism, 133; 
his mention of Annas, 389; mention 
of the number of lambs slaughtered 
for the Passover Feast, 412 ; his 
mention of Herod's palace, 439. 

Joses, 186. 

Joshua, the name interchanged with 
Jesus, 60; called Jesus in the New 
Testament, 60; his writings, a pro- 
phetic roll, 140 ; tradition of the law 
handed down bv him, 276. 

Judaea, 3, IS, 39, 56, 99. 180, 509, 516, 
680, 682; date of establishment of 
Roman rule, 3; divided among the 
sons of Herod, 3 ; given to Archelaus, 
3; reunited with the Jewish kingdom, 
4; the seat of Jewish orthodoxy, 6; 
census of, 89; formalism of, 124; 
coins to be used in, 376. 

Judah, 43, 75, 338, 350. 

Judah, Mountains of, 52. 

Judah, Wilderness of, 8. 

Judaism, 3, 21, 124; the external rites 
not considered binding by the liberal 
school of Jesus, 18 ; gives rise to 
Christianity, 66; its tendency since 
the days of Ezra, 284; gospel de- 
tached" from, 536; the heathens do 
not embrace the tenets of, though 
they accept Christ, 541, 542; tone of 
the author of the Fourth Gospel to- 
wards, 671, 672. 

Judas, son of James, 181 ; name substi- 
tuted for Lebbaeus, 181. 

Judas, son of Joseph and Mary, 8; 
brother of Jesus, 238; his personal 
qualities, 91. 



Judas, son of Sabbas, 554, 555. 

Judas, the Galilean, 89, 375, 497, 498.; 
insurrection of, 333. 

Judas Iscariot, story of, in the Apocry- 
pha, 86; of Karioth, a disciple of 
Jesus, 180; called "the betrayer," 
181 ; a possible warning to, 308 ; 
Jesus observes a change in his bear- 
ing, 409, 680; his treacherv, 409-412; 
at the Last Supper, 414, 684, 685 ; is 
missed from the Twelve, 419; the 
betrayer, in the garden, 427 ; the kiss 
of betrayal, 425,426; betrays Jesus, 
686; action of Caiaphas in concert 
with him, 428; his place among the 
Twelve forfeited, 482; his remorse, 
and reported death, 483; the purchase 
of the Potter's Field, 483; reproves 
Mary for her wastefulness, 683. 

Judas the Maccabee, 89. 

Judas, Epistle of, its authorship, 24. 

Jude, brother of Jesus, 38. 

.Jude, Epistle of, 24, 648, 649; rejected 
by some from the sacred canon, 665. 

Judges, the writings a. prophetic roll, 
140. 

Judgment, Gate of, 449. 

Judgment, the last, 151, 166, 167, 488; 
parable of, 206; in Revelation, 654, 
655. 

Julius, centurion of the royal cohort, 
630 ; his treatment of Paul, 630. 

Julius Caesar, 2, 654 ; story of his cross- 
ing the Adriatic Sea, 260. 

Junius, 591. 

Jupiter, 539. 

Justus, 60. 

Juvencus, date of, 76; a line in his 
Gospel History, 76. 

Kadesh, town of Galilee, 94. 

Karioth, home of Judas, 180. 

Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, 319 

Kidron, 360, 419. 

Kidron, Brook of, 686. 

"Kingdom of God," 103, 223, 351, 
352; Jesus's conception of, 150-152, 
264, 342; vocation of the citizens 
of, 163-172 ; the gospel of, 172-177 ; 
Jesus's answer to the Pharisees con- 
cerning its coming, 288, 289 ; emble- 
matic history of, "296-298; parables 
relating to, 296-298, 304-311; Jesus's 
promises, 258; Jesus questioned con- 
cerning, 342-346 ; motto of, 352 ; 
Jesus's hope and disappointment, 
424; foundations laid by Jesus, 455; 
efforts of the Apostles to hasten the 
coming, 650, 651 ; how represented 
in Revelation, 654, 655; disappoint- 
ment in regard to its coming, 655- 
657 ; unlike the modern Church, 665; 



734 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



how repiesented in the Fourth Gos- 
pel, 672. See Messianic Age and 
Messianic Kingdom. 

Kingdom of Heaven, the expression 
used by John, 10-3. 

Kings, the prophetic roll, 140. 

Laborer, the, and the treasure, parable 
of, 144, 145. 

Lamb, the, 653, 654, 674, 684, 689. 
See Paschal Lamb. 

Land-surveyors. 90. 

Laodicea, 590, 591 ; Christian com- 
munity established in, 590 ; com- 
munity addressed in Revelation, 646, 
647. 

Lasea, city of, 631. 

Last Judgment, the. See Judgment. 

Last Supper, the, 413-416. See Lord's 
Supper. 

Latin, the language, where spoken, 2; 
one of the languages in which the in- 
scription over the cross was written, 
688. 

Latin Historians, the, 27. 

Law, the religion of the, 5; the study 
of, the task of the Scribes, 6; the 
observance of, 6, 7; studied by the 
Jews, 7; Jesus's view of, 10, 11; 
observed by the disciples, 15, 16; 
how regarded by Paul at the time of 
his conversion, 16 ; prediction of 
Stephen concerning it, 16; one sec- 
tion of Jesus's followers still hold 
to it, 17 ; observance of, insisted 
upon by the Jewish-Christians, 18 ; 
preached at Antioch, 19 ; not so 
strictly insisted on by the Jewish- 
Christians, 21; parents of Jesus ob- 
served the injunctions of, 60; ordin- 
ance relating to birth, 61 ; commands 
observance of the Passover, 80; "a 
son of the law," explanation of the 
term, 80; Israelitish boys, instructed 
in the, 80, 82; explained by Jesus in 
the Apocrypha, 83, 84 ; study of, 
joined to some handicraft, 90 ; taught 
to Jewish children, 93 ; not so rigor- 
ously studied at Jerusalem, 94, 95; 
instance of the Jewish reverence, 97; 
the tables of, 99 ; taught by John the 
Baptist, 111 ; read aloud in the syna- 
gogue, 140, 141 ; the teachers of the, 
avoid the unclean, 199; observed by 
Jesus, 211, 212; The Law and the 
Prophets, 220, 221 ; attitude of Jesus 
towards its precepts, 220-232 ; its 
authenticity, 221; does not rank in 
Jesus's mind as high as humanity, 
276 ; commandments concerning bath- 
ing and eating, 276-278; Oral Law, 
276, 277, 520; penalty for adultery, 



376, 377; punishment prescribed foi 
the reputed crimes of Jesus, 438; 
proclaimed from Mount Sinai, 487, 
488; strictly observed by Paul, 520; 
Paul's conflict between his fidelity to, 
and his inner convictions, 526-528, 
531 ; struggle between strict observ- 
ance of, and justification by faith, 
546-560; account in Acts " of the 
efforts of the Jews to prevail on Paul 
to adhere to it, 615, 616; its moral 
requirements emphasized in Revela- 
tion, 646 ; contrasted forcibly with 
gospel, 657 ; Christianity the new 
law, 658. 

Law of Moses, 227, 554. 

Law of the Jews, how regarded by the 
author of the Fourth Gospel, 672. 

Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary, 
682; story of his being raised from 
the dead/ 682, 683. 

Lazarus, the parable of, and its origin 
and meaning, 387-389; signification 
of the name," 388. 

Leaven, the parable of, 152. 

Lebbseus, a disciple of Jesus, 180; names 
sometimes substituted in the Gospels 
for his own, 181. 

Lechseum. 570. 

Leper, healed by Jesus, 202, 203; em- 
blematic meaning of the story, 203. 

Lesbos, 611. 

Letters, 22. See Epistles. 

Levi, 181 ; son of Alphaeus, invited by 
Jesus to come to his home, 200, 201. 

Levite, the character of, in " the Good 
Samaritan," 299, 300. 

Levitical "cleanness," strict observance 
of, 6, 199: Jesus's view of, 10. 

Levitical Priesthood, annulled in He- 
brews, 649, 650. 

Levitical Purity, 104. 

Leviticus, cited by the Jewish lawyer, 
298. 

Libertini, 506. 

Lights, Feast of, 681. 

Loaves and fishes, the, miracle of, 148, 
149, 679. 

Logos, its signification, 670; the doc- 
trine of, 670-673. 

Lois, 539. 

"Lord's Praver," the. 262-265. 

"Lord's Supper," the, 413-418, 684, 
685 ; symbolism of the occasion, 415- 
418, 679, 689; its importance in the 
Church, 662. 

Love, a doctrine of Jesus, 229-231, 233 

Lucius, the Cyrencean, 517, 536. 

Luke, companion of Paul, 24, 637, 638, 
a Greek physician, 562. 

Luke, Gospel of, its contents and au- 
thorship, 24, 25, 27-33 ; pedigree of 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



735 



Jesus, 36, 39 ; first two chapters taken 
from Jewish-Christian writings, 47; 
representation of birth of Jesus unlike 
that in Matthew, 55 ; his idea of the 
name Jesus, GO; account of .Tesus's 
presentation at the temple, 62; at- 
tempts of the commentators to recon- 
cile his account Avith that of Matthew, 
72; account of Jesus in the temple, 
79-8'2; l-eference to Jesus' s age, 126; 
one of the sources of, from which Luke 
draws his materials, 158; rendering 
of the "Lord's Prayer," 262. 26-3; 
account of the appointment of the 
Seventy and their work, 542, 543; a 
scene in, used in a chapter of John, 
667. 

Luther, 323. 

Lvcaonia, 538. 

Lycia, 630. 

Lvdda, 557, 560. 

Lydia, 564, 565. 

Lyons, 4. 

Lysanius, 96. 

Lysias, Claudius, story of Paul's 
being saved from the mob at Jeru- 
salem, 619, 620, 623; expected at 
CaBsarea, 625. 

Lystra, Paul preaches here, 538, 563; 
Paul stoned at, 577. 

Maccab^ean war, 333. 

Maccabees, the, 3. 

Macedonia, 19, 20; communities of 
Jews established in, 7; Paul jour- 
nevs and works in the land, 562, 564, 
579, 595. 

Macedonians, assist in the contribution 
for Jerusalem, 603. 

Machaerus, 133; fortress of, 122. 

Madness, 132. 

Magdala, 125, 137, 207, 237, 282. 

Magi, the, 68; the story of considered, 
71-78; the story of, interpreted by 
the Church, 74-76. 

Malachi, his prophecy of the Messianic 
age, 49, 50; does not speak of the 
Messiah, 110; a prophetic roll, 140. 

Malchus, 686. 

Malta, St. Paul's Bay, 633. 

Mammon, 169. 

Man, how regarded by Jesus, 173-177. 

Man, Son of, expression used bv Jesus, 
199, 252, 314, 315, 330, 331, 350, 352, 
354, 414, 426, 432. 

Manna, 99. 

Manoah, 40, 44, 47. 

"Maranatha," 651. 

Marcion, head of a sect against Juda- 
ism, 657. 

Marcionites, the, 22; not justified by 
the author of Acts, 600. 



Maria, 591. 

Mark, conjecture concerning him, 427; 
desired to join Paul at Rome. 637; 
with Paul at Rome, 638; speculations 
about him after Paul's death, 642. 
See John Mark. 

Mark, Gospel of, its authorship, 24, 25, 
27-33; does not speak of Bethlehem 
or miraculous birth, 56 ; account of 
Jesus's baptism, 118, 120 ; his narra- 
tives characterized by great rapidity 
of motion, 137. 

Marriage, Jesus questioned concerning 
the subject, and his views thereon, 
338-342; customs of Israel, 339; 
Jewish laws, 647. 

Mars' Hill, 569. 

Martha, visit of Jesus at her home, 186, 
187; Jesus at her house, 683; ac- 
count of Lazaras being raised from 
the dead, 682, 683. 

Mary, mother of Jesus, 8; married to 
Joseph, 42; account of birth in the 
"Gospel of James," 47; the birth of 
Jesus foretold to Mary, 51, 52; her 
visit to Elizabeth, 52; her song of 
thanksgiving, 52, 54; goes with 
Joseph to Bethlehem, 52, 53; birth 
of Jesus, 53, 54; receives the visit of 
the shepherds, 54 ; the appearance of 
Gabriel to her, 54, 55; her visit to 
Elizabeth, 55; fails to understand 
Jesus, 57 ; interview with Simeon, 62, 
63 ; message from Gabriel, 64 ; her 
flight from Bethlehem, 70; accounts 
in the Apocryphal Gospels, 76-78; 
accounts in the Apocrypha, 83-85; 
her astonishment at Jesus with the 
Rabbis, 81, 82; her family, 90; her 
characteristics, 91, 92; her reception 
of Jesus at Nazareth, 237, 238; seeks 
Jesus at Capernaum, 239, 240; at the 
cross, 688. 

Mary, mother of Mark, 500. 

Mary, sister of Martha, 186, 187 ; Jesus 
at her house, 186, 187 ; account of 
Lazarus being raised from the dead, 
682, 683; anoints Jesus, 683. 

Mary, wife of Clopas' and mother of 
James the Less, 186 ; a friend of 
Jesus, 186; at the cross, 451, 688; at 
the sepulchre, 460 ; said to have been 
the first to see Jesus after his resur- 
rection, 469, 470; story of Jesus ap- 
pearing to her, 473-477. 

Mary Magdalene, a follower of Jesus, 
186; story of the woman known by 
this name, 205-208; at the cruci- 
fixion, 451; at the cross, 688; at the 
sepulchre, 460; finds the tomb emp- 
ty, 689; beholds Jesus at the tomb, 
689, 690; story of Jesus appearing 



736 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



to her 473-477; said to have been 
one of he first to see Jesus after his 
resurrection, 469, 470. 

"Mary's Birth, and the Childhood of 
the Redeemer," 84. 

Massacre of the Innocents, 70, 73 ; day 
of commemoration, 66. 

Massah, 323. 

Master, the name declined by Jesus, 
116, 163; the title, 141; suggestion 
of the term, 179. 

Matarea, legend of a sycamore tree, 78. 

Mater Dolorosa, the, 63. 

Matthew, a disciple of Jesus, 180 ; 
called "the publican, 1 ' 181; incor- 
rectly called "the publican," 201; 
by some thought to be Nathanael, 
676. 

Matthew, Gospel of, its contents and 
authorship, 24, 25, 27-33 ; explana- 
tion of the term "according to 
Matthew," 30 ; contradiction in 
the text regarding the descent of 
Jesus, 35, 36, 39; representation of 
birth of Jesus unlike that in Luke, 
55; story of Jesus's birth, 41, 42; 
his idea of the name Jesus, 60; ac- 
count of Jesus and the Magi, 68-71; 
attempts to reconcile the accounts 
with those of Luke, 72; account of 
Jesus's baptism, 117, 120; collection 
of savings called the " Sermon on 
the Mount," 141; his rendering of 
the "Lord's Prayer," 262; the para- 
ble of the vineyard and the laborers, 
its significance, 296, 297; a version 
of, a favorite with the Ebionites, 
657. 

Matthias, chosen to fill the place of 
J udas, 484, 485 ; by some thought to 
be Nathanael. 676. 

Mediterranean Sea, the, 125, 312. 

Melchior, 76. 

Melita, island of, 633, 634. 

Menahem, 536. 

Mercury, 539. 

Meroe, Queen of, her treasurer, 515. 

Merom, waters of, 311. 

Messiah, the, 12, 13 ; believed in firmly 
by the disciples, 15, 16 ; expected by 
many, but in different ways, 16 ; the 
idea of exclusive ownership bv the 
Jews, 17, 22, 39; Greek word for, 18 ; 
prophecies in the Old Testament re- 
ferring to Jesus, 37, 38; mother of 
the, 41 ; the coming of, foretold to 
Zachariah, 45 ; throne of, to be occu- 
pied by Jesus, 51, 52; the birth of, 
54; called by the Rabbis "the Com- 
forter," 64; birth of, announced by 
the Magi, 68, 69; a Jew faisely as- 
sumes the name, 73, 74; typified by 



Israel, 75; Jesus disputes with the 
Rabbis concerning, 84; the Gospels' 
mention of John's prophecy, 109 ; the 
Old Testament writers conceived the 
Messiah to be God, 110 ; account in 
Matthew of Jesus's baptism and de- 
scent of the Spirit, 117, 118 ; signifi- 
cation of the name, 118; the disciples 
at first ignorant of Jesus's Messiah- 
ship, 182; John's idea of Jesus's 
Messiahship, 254, 255; the name 
given to Jesus by his disciples, 313, 
314; the name applied to Jesus, and 
his interpretation of it, 313-320; 
Jesus's sense of duty and sacrifice 
required of the Messiah, 325-335; 
Davidic origin of, 383; thoughts 
about it, at the trial of Jesus, 432- 
435; taunts concerning, heaped on 
Jesus on the cross, 452, 453 ; proved 
to be Jesus of Nazareth, 486 ; the 
spirit of Peter's first discourse, 489; 
Stephen's reference to, in his trial 
before the Sanhedrim, 508 ; the child 
of Israel in Revelation, 654; a new 
conception of, 671. 

Messianic age, the, 98, 99 ; announced 
by John the Baptist, 102, 103, 108, 
109, 112, 121; announced bv Jesus, 
137, 151, 210, 234, 337 ; the old proph- 
ecies of, 255, 313; Jesus asked for a 
sign, 289; Jesus's conception of, 295 ; 
Jesus questioned about salvation, 
342 ; announced by the Apostles* 
488. See Messianic kingdom, and 
Kingdom of God. 

Messianic expectation, the, 6, 38, 47, 
57, 98, 100 ; change in the thought of 
Christian circles, 110; its political 
character, 122, 151 ; Paul's martyr- 
dom for, 636; disappointment of the 
believers, 645. 

Messianic feast, the, 301, 304-308. 

Messianic judgment, the, 677. 

Messianic kingdom, the, 8, 9, 12 ; to be 
for Israel alone, 17; right of the 
Heathen-Christians as citizens of, 18, 
19, 21 ; position of John toward, 43 ; 
prophecies relating to the coming of, 
45. 49-51; Greek expressions refer- 
ring to, 61; longings for, 62, 94; 
announced by John the Baptist, 98, 
102, 105, 106, 108 ; referred to in the 
Beatitudes,. 159; announced by Jesus, 
288, 313; controversy concerning the 
persons to be admitted, 292-311 ; 
parables relating to, 296-300, 304, 
305, 307-309 ; old prophecies concern- 
ing, 325; Jesus's resolve to establish 
it, 328, 335, 369; announced by the 
Apostles, 486-188; thrown open to 
others than Jews, 514, 515; test of 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



737 



admission to, 618. See Kingdom of 
God and Messianic Age. 

Messianic Passion-psalm, 452, 454. 

Michael, the angel, 46. 

Michah, 39, 103; prophecies of, 69. 

Middle Ages, 322; custom of celebrat- 
ing Christmas Eve, 68. 

Miletus, 611, 612. 

Mina, value of, 358. 

Minae, parable of, 358, 359. 

Miracles, not ascribed to John the Bap- 
tist, 111; ascribed to Elijah, 148; 
wonders worked by the Apostles, 
482-502; demand for, among the 
Jews and early Christians, 284; in 
the Fourth Gospel, 673. 

Miracles performed by Jesus : accounts 
in the Apocrvpha, 84-86 ; the won- 
derful draught of fishes, 128, 129; 
healing of the sick, blind, and insane, 
131-136, 148, 192, 193, 202-205, 208- 
210, 216, 217, 308-311, 355, 356, 367, 
574-576, 586-588, 678, 679, 680, 681; 
the loaves and fishes, 148, 149 ; mean- 
ing of the loaves and fishes, 149 ; the 
water turned to wine, 232, 233, 676; 
Jesus walking on the water, 268, 269 ; 
679; the dead brought to life, 285- 
287, 682, 683; the multitude fed, 
679; Lazarus raised from the dead, 
682, 683. 

Mishna, the oldest part of the Talmud, 
277; its commands regarding the 
washing of hands before and after 
eating, 277, 278. 

Mitylene, 611. 

Mnason, Paul and his companions re- 
ceived at his house, 614. 

Monday, day on which Moses descended 
Mount Sinai, 212. 

Money value of a mina, 358. 

Moor, 76. 

Morbus sacer, 132, 133. 

Moriah, 449. 

Moses, his fortune foreshadows that of 
the Messiah, 38; his fortunes like 
those of John the Baptist, 43 ; why 
his name is associated with that of 
Elijah in the New Testament, 49, 
50; dangers in his childhood which 
threatened him, 74; a phenomenon 
said to have occurred at his birth, 
74; how compared with Jesus by the 
ancients, 74, 75; mentioned by'Pru- 
dentius in his " Hymn for Epi- 
phany," 75; stories of, used in con- 
nection with accounts of Jesus, 83, 
141, 322, 333; purification of the 
people, 104; on Mount Sinai, com- 
pared with Jesus, 141, 322; fasts ob- 
served on the days of his ascent and 
descent of Mount Sinai, 212; sup- 



posed to have written the law, 221; 
his views on divorce referred to bv 
Jesus, 340; books of, 379; the blood 
of the covenant, 416; legend of the 
transfiguration, 502-504; referred to 
by Stephen, 507, 508; referred to in 
Revelation, 653. 

Moses, law of. 17, 21, 220, 276, 280, 502, 
554, 670; the penal code, 227. 

Mustard-seed, the parable of, 152. 

Myra, 631. 

Mvrrh, given bv the Magi to Jssus, 70, 
74, 76. 

Mysia, 630. 

Naaman, 235. 

Nain, the story of the widow's son, 
287. 

Names, signification important to the 
Israelites, 60, 61. 

Names and words having a significa- 
tion: Apostles, 180; Bar-Cochbah, 
74: Barnabas, 490; Boanerges, 181; 
Cephas, 181; Christ, 536; David, 61; 
Dorcas, 558; Ebionites, 158; Elymas, 
537; Frederick, 61; Gethsemane, 421; 
Golgotha, 449 ; Gottlieb, 61 ; Hakel- 
dama, 483; Hosanna, 363; Immanuel, 
61; Isaiah, 61; Jesus, 61; Johanan, 
44; John, 44; Lazarus, 388; Mes- 
siah, 118; Niger, 536; Solomon, 61. 

Naples, 634. 

Nathanael, on the Sea of Galilee, 666 , 
meets Jesus, 674, 675; his identity, 
675, 676. 

Nature, in the East, 171. 

Nazarene, the, 39, 40. 

Nazarenes, the sect of, 16, 636; nick- 
name applied to the community at 
Jerusalem, 489; a distinct party at 
Jerusalem, 616. 

Nazareth, 8; birthplace of Jesus, 39, 
40, 56 ; Gabriel comes to Mary at, 51, 
52; its natural beauty, 89, 90; prob- 
ably no schools in, 92 ; Jesus does not 
wish to begin his work here, 124; 
preaching of Jesus at, 234-236, 238; 
reception of Jesus bv the Nazarenes, 
234, 235, 237-239, 240. 

Nazarite, a, 40, 45, 48. 

Nazarite's vow, the, 545; story of 
Paul's taking the vow, 615, 616. 

Neapolis, 564. 

Nebo, Mount, 43. 

Nebuchadrezzar, 7. 

Nero, 635 ; outburst of infamy at Rome, 
640-642; his fearful persecution, 652; 
the Antichrist in Revelation, 654 ; 
effect of his persecution, 660. 

Nestorians, the, 76. 

New Covenant, the, 48 ; Jesus, the 
Mediator of, 74. 



738 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



New Testament, the, 4; its books and 
their authorship, 22-33 ; books of, ex- 
amined, 27-33 ; opening passage, 35 ; 
peculiar uses of its language, 41; 
passages from the Old Testament 
used in the narratives of, 46-51, 72- 
75, 83, 119, 120, 127, 196, 197, 255, 
483 ; why the names of Moses and 
Elijah are associated together, 49, 50 ; 
passages bearing upon the account 
of Jesus's birth, 56; Joshua called 
Jesus, 60; signification of name of 
Jesu,; identical with certain Greek 
expressions, 61; reasons for being 
cautious in accepting the narratives, 
87 ; Jesus represented as requiring to 
learn obedience, 116 ; contains many 
emblematic pictures, 130 ; passage 
attributed to Jesus probably not his 
saying, 176; three apparent contra- 
dictions in the narrative of the life of 
Jesus, 211 ; the substance of the apos- 
tolic teaching, 489 ; writings refer- 
ring to the second coming of Christ, 
652-655; epistle showing the disap- 
pointed hopes of the Christians, 656 ; 
formation of, 664, 665; the Fourth 
Gospel the ripest fruit of the spirit 
of Jesus 692. 

Nicanor, Gate of, 393. 

Nicanor, one of the Seven, 506 ; conse- 
crated to the service of Jesus, 506. 

Nicodemus, 673 ; Jesus's interview 
with, 676, 677 ; his protest for Jesus, 
680; assists Joseph in the burial of 
Jesus, 689. 

Nicodemus, Gospel of, 443, 480 ; de- 
scription of Jesus going to Paradise, 
457. 

"Nicolaitans," the, 647. 

Nicolas of Antioch, one of the Seven, 
506 ; consecrated to the service of 
Jesus, 506. 

Nicopolis, 466. 

Niger, signification of name, 536. 

Nineveh, 302. 

Nisan, 14, 392, 407. 

Northumberland, 88. 

Nymphas, 590. 

Octavianus (Augustus), date of his 
reign, 2. See Augustus. 

Offence, Mount of, 359. 

Offerings : burnt sacrifice, 61 ; purifica- 
tion/61; sin offering, 61. 

Old Covenant, the, 48, 74, 141, 220. 

Old Testament, the, 37 ; the translation 
of, into Greek, 7 ; use of its texts and 
prophecies by the early Christians, 
37-40; use of passages in forming 
the accounts of the New Testament. 
46-51, 72-75, 83, 119, 120, 127, 196, 



197, 255, 483; the fates of the Christ 
and John indicated, 47,48; similar- 
ity of ideas in, connected with the 
Sermon on the Mount, 141, 142; its 
spirit of love and hatred, 229; the 
God of, not the God of Jesus, 230- 
"he that was to come" referred to 
Elijah by the Rabbis, 255; illustra- 
tions drawn from, by Jesus, 302, 303 ; 
sayings taken from, 365; an angel of 
sudden sickness or death mentioned 
in, 501; examples from, used in Jude. 
649 ; the ritual and history of, serve 
as types to foreshadow the new dis- 
pensation, 649; a parallel series of 
writings needed bv the Church, 664, 
665. 

Olives, Mount df, 14, 359, 360, 361; 
370, 419, 682. 

"On the Sacred Disease," 133. 

Onesimus, 637 ; converted to Christian- 
ity, 637, 638; Paul pleads for him 
with his master, 638. 

Onesiphorus, faithful friend of Paul, 
590, 637. 

Overseers in the Church, 663. 

Ox, the, parable of, 216. 

Palestine, a Roman province, 2-5; 
Jewish-Christian believers in, 18 ; 
journey of Jesus to, 312; the ass 
used in, 362. 

Palm Sundav, 363. 

Pamphylia, 537, 540. 

Pamphylian Gulf, 631. 

Paphos, 537. 

Parables, the, 9, 28, 30, 130, 142-155 ; 
their teachings, 154. 

Parables : the laborer and the treasure, 
144, 145; the pearl of great price, 
145 ; the householder, 150 ; the hus- 
bandman, 152; the leaven, 152; the 
mustard seed, 152; the sower, 153; 
the houses built on sand and rock, 
154, 155; the debtor, 161, 162; the 
parable of the talents, 165, 166 ; the 
last judgment, 166, 167; the parable 
of the debtor to whom most was for- 
given, 206 ; the woman and the lost 
coin, 210; the mended garment and 
the new and old wine, 213, 214; the 
sheep fallen into a hole, 216, 217 ; the 
ox, 217; Good Samaritan, 230, 298- 
300; the Prodigal Son, 246-249; the 
Publican and Pharisee, 249-251 ; con- 
cerning the "Kingdom of God," 
296-300, 304, 305, 307-309 ; the vine- 
yard and the laborers, 296-298 : the 
wedding feast, 304; the supper and 
invited guests, 305; the wedding rxar- 
ment, 307, 308; the fig-tree, 349; 
the niime or pounds, 358, 359 ; Laz- 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



739 



arus and the rich man, 387-389 ; the 
husbandman and tbe vineyard, 389- 
391; the rich man and his steward, 
396, 397 ; the foolish virgins, 403-405 ; 
the parable of the darnel seed, 643,644 ; 
a possible companion to the parable 
of "the sower," 644; the widow and 
the judge, 656. 

Parallel passages, 27. 

Paralysis, moral, 204, 205. 

Paralytic, healed, by Jesus, 204, 205; 
emblematic of tbe story, 205, 206. 

Parmenas, consecrated to the service of 
Jesus, 506. 

Parthian Invasion, allusion to in Reve- 
lation, 653. 

Parthian Monarchy, the, 1. 

Paschal Lamb, the, 215, 408, 412, 684, 
689. 

Paschal Meal, the, 684. 

Passover, the, 7, 14, 80, 185, 337, 385, 
684; to be the feast of tbe redemp- 
tion, 368; celebration of, 407, 408, 
412, 413 ; psalms sung at the celebra- 
tion of, 413, 419 ; closing of the feast, 
419 ; custom of the Roman governor 
of releasing a prisoner at that time, 
441, 687; celebrated at full moon, 
456; the first day of the, speciallv 
sacred, 688. 

Patara, harbor of, 613. 

Patmos, 652. 

Pau!, historical sketch of, 16-26; a ro- 
mance written against him, 21; the 
Universal (Catholic) Church named 
after Peter and Paul, 21, 22 ; his ex- 
pression as to Jesus being the son of 
Joseph, 56 ; describes the birth of 
Jesus, 59; claims the title of Apos- 
tle, 180; his powerful influence upon 
Christians, 197 ; gives the reason for 
the rejection of Jesus by Israel, 285, 
287 ; takes part in the execution of 
Stephen, 509, 514; first preacher of 
faith over the law, 517; his work, 

519 ; his Jewish descent, 520 ; 
his education, 520 ; particulars in 
Acts about his youth and education, 
521-524; his devotion to the law, 

520 ; persecutes the community of 
Jerusalem, 520 ; his reasons for perse- 
cuting the community, 524-526; not 
connected in any way with Jesus, 520, 
521; his name of Saul, 521; his con- 
version, 522-524; beholds Ananias, 
523, 524 ; his conversion gathered 
from his own letters, 524-528; his 
excitable temperament, 528 ; the 
Apostle of the heathen, 528, 533: 
considered by some unfit for the 
Apostolate, 484 ; passage relating to 
the resurrection of Jesus, 467, 468 ; 



appeals to the Scriptures, 467, 468; 
his religious development, 529-531 ; 
goes to Arabia, 530, 532; labors at 
Damascus, 532 ; makes acquaint- 
ance with Peter and James brother 
of Jesus, 532; account in Acts of 
his conduct after conversion, 533 ; 
visits Cilicia, 533, 541, 547, 555, 563, 
624 ; his mission in Syria and Cilicia, 
534; his headquarters at Antioch, 
534-536; his followers, 534; said to 
have brought money to the sufferers 
in Judiva, 535 ; his preaching at An- 
tioch, 536; receives the name of Paul, 
537; cousecrated for mission work, 
537; his missionary journey, 537- 
541 ; visits Derbe, 538, 539, 563 ; his 
work at Lystra, 539 ; worshipped as 
Mercury, 539 ; stoned at Lystra, 539 ; 
reservations made concerning his 
missionary journey, 540, 541; fruit 
of his toil in the regions of Syria and 
Cilicia, 541; significance of his Avork, 
545 ; goes to Jerusalem to seek wis- 
dom concerning the disputes in the 
community, 547 ; pleads his cause at 
Jerusalem, 548-550; returns to An- 
tioch, 550 ; visited by Peter at Anti- 
och, 550 ; to collect money among his 
converts for the community at Jeru- 
salem, 550 ; Peter's conduct at An- 
tioch, 550-553; Barnabas estranged 
from him, 552, 555-557; account in 
Acts of his controversy with the 
community at Jerusalem, 553-557; 
importance of some of his letters, 
561; his vision analogous to that of 
Peter, 561 ; his missionary labors and 
travels after the conflict, 562-576 ; at 
Ephesus, 562, 576-595, 602; meets 
Timothy, 563; his visit to Galatia, 
563, 564, 579-582; his treatment bv 
the Galatians, 563, 564; takes ship at 
Troas, 564; his companions, 564; at 
Philippi, 564-567 ; his fellow-laborers 
at Philippi, 565 ; thrown into a dun- 
geon, and his deliverance, 565, 566; 
story of the slave-girl at Philippi, 
565-567; story of his pleading the 
Roman citizenship, 566 ; his labors at 
Thessalonica, 567; at Athens, 568- 
570; visits Achaia, 570, 572, 579, 
595; at Corinth, 570-576; resides 
with Aquila, 570, 571 ; his labors at 
Corinth, 571-576; his letters to the 
Corinthians, 572; goes to Ephesus, 
572; his Epistles, 573 (see under 
their respective names); his preach- 
ing at Corinth, 574; his preaching at 
Thessalonica, 574; his preaching at 
Antioch, 574; settles at Ephesus, 
576 ; date of his work there, 576 ; his 



740 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



manner of life during his missionary 
labors, 576-578; at Ephesus, 576- 
594 ; stoned at Lystra, 577 ; misrep- 
resented to the Galatians, 579, 580; 
opposition from the Jewish-Chris- 
tians, 579, 580, 582-588; his letter to 
the Galatians, 580-582, 584; his at- 
tacks upon the Judaiziug fanatics, 
584; his work at Ephesus, 588-594; 
stories in the Acts of Paul's apostolic 
dignity, 589, 590; establishes many 
Christian communities, 590; his fel- 
low-laborers, 590, 591; opposition 
from Jewish-Christians, 592; oppo- 
sition at Ephesus, 592, 593, the 
tumult concerning Artemis, 593, 594 ; 
writes to the Corinthians, 595, 599- 
601 ; resolves to visit Macedonia and 
Achaia, 595 ; his interest in Corinth, 
595-601; his doctrine spreads at 
Corinth, 596; takes leave of the 
Ephesians, 595 ; Jewish-Christian 
opposition at Corinth, 597; his re- 
buke of sectarianism, 599 ; collects 
monev for the communitv at Jerusa- 
lem, 601-604; settles at "Troas, 602; 
second and third letter to the Corin- 
thians, 602; leaves Ephesus, 602; 
goes to Macedonia, 602; Jewish- 
Christian opposition, 603; his anx- 
iety for the Corinthians, 603 ; fourth 
letter to the Corinthians, 603, 604; 
his plans for future work, 605; goes 
to Greece, 605 ; a short time in Cor- 
inth, 605 ; means to go to Jerusalem, 
605, 609 ; his intention of visiting 
Spain and Rome, 605, 609 ; his in- 
tention of preaching at Rome, 605, 
606 ; his Epistle to the Romans, 606- 
609 ; goes to Troas, 609 ; his com- 
panions of travel, 609; his last visit 
to the communities he had founded, 
610 ; Jewish-Christian opposition, 
610; at Troas, 611; his route to 
Jerusalem, 611-615 ; goes to Mity- 
lene, 611 ; goes to Assus, 611 ; ac- 
count in Acts of his last farewell to 
the Ephesians, 612, 613 ; goes to Cos, 
613; sails for Phoenicia, 613; reaches 
Rhodes, 613; stays with Philip the 
Evangelist at Caesarea, 613, 614; re- 
ceives a warning at Csesarea, 614; 
reaches Jerusalem, 614; is cordially 
welcomed by Mnason, 614; at Jeru- 
salem, 614-624 ; story of his taking 
the Nazarite vow, 615, 616 ; story of 
his reception at Jerusalem, 615-617; 
how represented by the writer of 
Acts, 616 ; story of Simon the magi- 
cian and its meaning, 617, 618; 
story placing his collection and 
apostleship in an odious light, 018; 



his project in going to Jerusalem 
completely wrecked, 617-619; meets 
the Jewish-Christian opposition at 
Jerusalem, 619; mobbed at Jerusa- 
lem, 619, 620; his defence before 
Lysias, 620, 621; claims the right of 
a Roman citizen, 621; his defence 
before the Sanhedrim, 621, 622 ; his 
vision of the Lord, 622, 623; the 
Jews swear his death, 623; conveyed 
to Caesarea, 623; escorted to An- 
tipatris, 623; put in custody at the 
former palace of Herod the Great, 
624; tried at Caesarea, 625, 626-630; 
in captivity at Caesarea, 625-630 ; his 
imprisonment and death, 624^643; 
two years a prisoner at Rome, 625; 
claims his right as a Roman citizen, 
627, 628 ; appeals to Caesar, 627, 628, 
630; tried before Festus, 627, 628; 
his case referred to and tried before 
Agrippa, 628-630; his speech before 
Agrippa and answer to Festus, 629, 
630; date of his journey to Italy, 
630; his voyage to Italy and the 
shipwreck, 630-633; his route from 
Caesarea to Melita, 630-633 ; received 
kindlv by the people of Melita, 633, 
634; the story of the adder, 633; St. 
Pauls Bav/633; heals the sick at 
Melita, 633, 634; leaves Melita for 
Rome, 634 ; his route from Melita to 
Rome, 633, 634; a prisoner at Rome, 
634-637 ; impression made by his let- 
ter, 635 ; how received by the Chris- 
tians at Rome, 635; summons the 
leaders of the Roman Jews, 635, 636 ; 
his relations with the Christian com- 
munity at Rome, 636, 637 ; three let- 
ters attributed to him, 637-640 ; their 
authenticity, 637, 638 ; letter to Tim- 
othy, 637; his friendship for Onesi- 
mus, 637, 638; letter to Philemon, 
637, 638; his companions in Rome, 
638; gives Epaphroditus a letter to 
the Philippians, 638; letter to Appia 
and Archippus, 638; a prisoner at 
Rome, his work for the gospel, 638, 
639 ; Epistle to the Philippians, 638- 
640 ; his confidence in Timothy, 639 ; 
Peter said to be the fellow-victim at 
his execution, 640; denounces the 
Jewish-Christian opposition, 640 ; 
tradition of his death and its date, 
640-642; his mode of death uncer- 
tain, 642; traces lost of his fellow- 
workers, 642; compared with Jesus, 
642, 643; the founder of the Chris- 
tian Church, 642 ; his work and char- 
acter, 642, 643; condition of the 
communities after his death. 643-665 ; 
Jewish-Christian opposition, 644-650; 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



741 



James a violent opponent of, 645 ; his 
doctrines loathed in Revelation, 646, 
647; the title of Apostle denied him 
in Revelation, 646; writings issued 
in support of Paulinism, 649, 650; 
his doctrine attacked in the Epistle of 
James, 648; his purpose in his reli- 
gious work, 650, 651; his hope of a 
resurrection, 650, 651; his faith and 
belief -in the future, 651; his motto, 
659 ; how represented by the author 
of Acts, 660; loses ground in the 
reconciliations between Paulinism 
and Jewish-Christianity, 661; the 
pastoral Epistles, 663 ; his preparation 
of the Avorld for the doctrine of the 
Logos, 671; can he be identified with 
ISTathanael, 676. 

Paul, Epistles of. See under their re- 
spective names. 

Pauline-Christians, their manner of re- 
turning the attacks of the Jewish- 
Christians, 585, 586. 

Paulinism, reconciliation with Jewish- 
Christianity, 658-661. 

Pearl of great price, the parable of, 145. 

Pella, 654. 

Pentateuch, 221. 

Pentecost, 485: feast of, 488. 

"Peoples of the Land, the," explana- 
tion of the term, 7, 9 ; cared for by 
Jesus, 59, 199, 246, 254, 293 ; religious 
movement among, 289. 

Peraea, given to Herod Antipas, 4; date 
of its return to the Jewish Kingdom, 
4 ; John the Baptist works there, 
122; Jesus passes through, 310, 336, 
674, 682. 

Pergamus, Christianity established, 
590; community addressed in Revela- 
tion, 646, 647. 

Perge, 537, 540. 

Persia, 76. 

Persian Gulf, 145. 

Persian Monarchy, the, 1. 

Persians, 46; reverence fire, 76; belief 
in angels and demons, 132, 133. 

Persis, 591. 

Pessinus, 563. 

Peter, Simon Peter, a disciple of Jesus, 
17 ; interview with Paul and others 
concerning the true faith, 18, 19; his 
treatment of the Heathen-Christians, 
19; the Universal (Catholic) Church 
named after Peter and Paul, 21, 22; 
referred to in the Book of Acts, 25, 
26 ; how represented in the Book 
jf Acts, 26 ; son of Jona, 127 ; 
called by Jesus to follow him, 127, 
128, 129; account of the wonderful 
draught of fishes, 128, 129 ; his 
mother-in-law h«aled by Jesus, 131, 



135; searches for Jesus, 136; ques- 
tions Jesus on forgiveness, 161 ; a 
disciple of Jesus, 180; surname of 
Simon, 181 ; the name of Peter given 
to him, the account not genuine, 319; 
the name of Cephas, 181 ; account of 
his being called Cephas, 674 ; his 
character, 181 ; placed first in the 
Jewish-Christian Gospel, 181 ; his 
effort to walk upon the water, 269; 
scene explanatory of this account, 
437 ; goes into the house of Jair, 
286; a parable directed against him, 
297 ; his recognition of Jesus as the 
Messiah, 313, 319 ; the keys of 
Heaven given to him, the account not 
genuine, 319; story of the tax for the 
temple, 320; tries to dissuade Jesus 
from going to Jerusalem, 329; one of 
the most trusted of the disciples, 351 ; 
his conversation with Jesus on the 
Mount of Olives, 402; commissioned 
by Jesus to prepare the Last Supper, 
408, 409; the Last Supper, 412-418, 
684, 685; his promise not to deny 
Jesus, 420; in the Garden of Geth- 
semane with Jesus, 421-426 ; Jesus 
wakes him, 423, 425 ; cuts off the ear 
of Malchus, account in John, 686; 
follows Jesus and enters the court- 
yard, 428, 435 ; denies his knowledge 
of Jesus, 436, 437, 686 ; Jesus appears 
to him, 465, 467, 666, 667; mentioned 
as the first who saw Jesus after his 
resurrection, 469, 470; runs to the 
sepulchre, 474; enters the tomb of 
Jesus, 689 ; urges the choice of one 
to fill the place of Judas, 484; his 
first discourse, 486, 487, 489 ; rebukes 
Ananias, 490 ; account of his action 
towards Ananias and Sapphira, 490- 
492; his address to the people, 494, 
495 ; heals the cripple, 494 ; brought 
before the Sanhedrim, 495 ; the sick 
brought to him, 496; seized and 
thrown into prison, 499 ; his miracu- 
lous rescue, 500-502; legend of the 
transfiguration, 502-504; one of the 
"pillars" of the Church, 503, 545, 
548, 582, 583; Paul's visit to him, 
532 ; rejects divine honors, 540 : 
founds communities of Christians. 
544 ; one of the chief members of the 
community at Jerusalem, 545, 548; 
recognizes felloAvship with Paul and 
Barnabas, 549 ; his visit to Paul, and 
action at Antioch, 550-553; account 
of his action at the time of the divis- 
ion in the community, as given in 
Acts, 553-561; account in Acts of 
his having been appointed preacher 
to the heathen, 557; his vision of the 



742 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



clean and unclean animals, 558 ; his 
preaching at Caesarea, 559 ; his 
vision compared with that of Saul, 
561; story showing Paul's equality 
with him, 589 ; Jewish-Christians 
appeal to him, 597; the Apostle of 
the Jews, 598; story of Simon the 
magician, 617, 618; said to be the 
fellow-victim of Paul, 640; account 
in Acts suddenly dropped, 641 ; 
rumors regarding him, 642 ; tra- 
ditions of his work and death, 645; 
how represented by the author of 
Acts, 660 ; legend of his being Bishop 
of Rome, 661 ; legend of his martyr- 
dom, 661; account of Jesus giving 
him the charge of the sheep of his 
fold, 666, 667; prediction that he will 
pass away, 667-669. 

Peter, First Epistle of, its authorship, 
24, 659 ; its purpose, 659-661. 

Peter, Second Epistle of, its authorship, 
24; date of, 656; rejected by 
some from the sacred canon, 
665. 

Pharaoh, 74. 

Pharisees, the, national party of Israel, 
5, 6 ; thrown into close relations 
with Jesus, 10; struggle with 
Jesus, 11, 12; join the community 
of Jesus, 17; congratulate Mary on 
her wonderful child, 84 ; Jesus meets 
them at the synagogue, 93, 94 ; study 
the law when in distress, 98; how 
they regarded John, 107 ; represented 
by "Matthew to have simulated their 
interest in baptism, 110; their fasts, 
140, 212 ; their movement favored 
by the Jewish women, 185 ; their 
questioning regarding the fasts and 
the Sabbath, 212-218; mentioned by 
Jesus with respect, 224; their rela- 
tions with Jesus, 241-252, 276-284, 
288-292 ; the places of honor at meals, 
244; parable of the Publican and 
Pharisee, 249-251 ; tell Jesus that 
Herod means to kill him, 275; in- 
terrogate Jesus concerning his neg- 
lect of "oral law," 276-281; demand 
a sign of. Jesus, 288, 292; question 
Jesus concerning marriage and di- 
vorce, 338-341; combine with the 
Sadducees against Jesus, 374-382 ; 
Jesus's utterances against, 384-386; 
the school of, colored by the influence 
of the Scribes, 383; in the Sanhedrim, 
622; exasperated against Jesus, 680, 
681. 

Philadelphia, Christian community es- 
tablished at, 590 ; community ad- 
dressed in Revelation, 646, 647. 

Philemon, a fellow-worker of Paul, 590. 



Philemon, Epistle of Paul to, 20, 637, 
638. 

Philip, a disciple of Jesus, 180 ; called 
by Jesus, 674; the Greeks ask access 
to Jesus, 683. 

Philip, a governor, obtains possession 
of the northern regions east of the 
Jordan, 4; date of his death, 4; re- 
ferred to by Mark, 122. 

Philip, an evangelist, consecrated to 
the service of Jesus, 506 ; one of th< 
Seven, 506, 512, 543; the Messiah 
preached to the Gentiles, 514, 515; 
his work among the Samaritans, 514, 
515 ; his work in Samaria, 617 ; re- 
ferred to in connection with Paul's 
conversion, 617, 676 ; the Evangelist, 
his work commemorated, 514; his 
conversion of Candace, 515, 516; 
Paul stavs with him at Caesarea, 
613, 614. 

Philippi, 19; Paul's work there, 564- 
567, 577, 603; community at, founded 
by Paul, 565. 

Philippians, the Letter of Paul to the, 
20, 638-640; date of letter to, 638; 
the Epistle to, bears a greeting from 
Timothy as well as Paul, 638. 

Philo, his mention of Pilate, 96, 97. 

Phoebe, converted by Paul, 571; the 
deaconess, 591. 

Phoenicia, 1, 94; Jesus journeys in, 
281, 518; persecuted Christians go 
there, 516 ; Paul passes through, 
554; Paul sails for, 613. 

Phoenix, 631. 

Phrygia, Paul journeys through, 563, 
579; Gentile-Christian communities 
in, 650. 

Phylacteries, prayer-bands, 250. 

Pilate, Pontius, 2, 4 ; his character, 96, 
97; his tyranny, 99; the slaughter 
of Galilseans, 348; Jesus is brought 
before him, 439 ; questions Jesus, 
439-444; his manner of hearing and 
judging criminals, 439 ; the custom of 
releasing a prisoner at the Passover, 
441; his endeavor to release Jesus, 
441-443 ; sentences Jesus to the cross, 
443; various accounts of the trial of 
Jesus, 443-445; trial of Jesus, 687, 
688 ; palace of, 449 ; Joseph of Ari- 
mathea asks him for the body of 
Jesus, 458, 459 ; the people desire a 
guard for the tomb of Jesus, 479. 

Pisces, 74. 

Pius IX., 72. 

Plato, 40. 

Pompeian, significance of its derivation, 
536. 

Pompey, 3. 

Pontine Marshes, 634. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



743 



Pontius Pilate, Roman governor, 4. See 
Pilate. 

Pontus, 570. 

Pope, supremacy of, as Peter's successor, 
319. 

Porcius Festus, 4. See Festus. 

"Possession," a nervous derangement, 
132, 186 ; the disease and its treat- 
ment, 133-136. 

Potter's Field, the, 483. 

Prayer : Jesus goes into the desert to 
pray, 136, 137, 138 ; custom of kneel- 
ing' in, unknown to the Jews, 250; 
how regarded by Jesus, 261-267. See 
"Lord's Prayer." 

Priests, division of, 44. 

Priests, "high priests," the, 371. 

Prisca, 570, 571. 

Priscilla, 570, 571, 579, 593 : goes with 
Paul to Ephesus, 572 ; instructs Apol- 
los in Christianity, 596. 

Prochorus consecrated to the service of 
Jesus, 506. 

Prodigal son, the, parable of, 246-249. 

Prophets, use of texts by the early 
Christians in writing the life of Jesus, 
37 ; their utterances, 103 ; the prophetic 
roll, 140 ; not taught to the unclean, 
199 ; the Law and the Prophets, 220, 
221. 

Proselytes, less narrow than the Pales- 
tinian Jews, 16 ; explanation of the 
term, 7. 

Protestants, their position before the In- 
quisition, 434. 

Proverbs, wisdom of the, enters into 
Alexandrian philosophy, 669, 670. 

Provinces of Rome, the, 1 ; division of, 
under Augustus, 2. 

Prudentius, his "Hymn for Epiph- 
any," 74, 75. 

Psalm xxii., how regarded by early 
Christians, 452 ; ex. quoted by Jesus, 
383 ; ex. applied to the Messiah, 489 ; 
cxiii., cxiv., and cxv.-cxviii. sung 
at the Passover, 413. 

Psalms, use of prophecies in writing the 
life of Jesus, 37, 38 ; those sung at 
the Passover, 413, 419. 

Ptolemais, 613. 

Publican and the Pharisee, parable of, 
249-251. 

Publicans, the, 198-201 ; explanation of 
the term, 7. 

Publius, governor of Melita, entertains 
Paul, 633. 

Publius Sulpicius Quirinus, 52. 

Purification, offering of, 61; sacrifice of, 
61, 62; symbol of, at the crucifixion, 
689. 

Purifications, 277. 

Pmeoli, 634, 635. 



Pyrrhus, 609, 610. 
Pythagoras, 40. 

"Quarahtania," scene of Jesus's con- 
flict with Satan, 322. 
Quartus, converted by Paul, 572. 
Quintus Sentius Saturninus, 56. 
Quirinus, 56. See Publius. 

Rabbi, the title, 141 ; Jesus forbids the 
title, 1G3. 

Rabbis, the, 49, 64, 80; Jesus among 
them, 81; learned some handicraft, 
90; their thought of forgiveness, 161. 

Ramathaim, 458. 

Raphael, the angel, 46. 

Redeemer, accounts in the Apocrvphal 
Gospels, 76-78, 84. 

Reformation, 134. 

Registration, 52. 

Religion, toleration of difference of be- 
liefs at Rome, 2, 3 ; freedom in, 435 ; 
comparative angelology, 46, 133, 378; 
doctrine of miraculous birth, 40, 41. 

Resurrection, the, 462-464; predicted, 
328, 332-334, 350; Jesus questioned 
concerning it, 379, 380; story of Jesus 
appearing to his disciples, 464-467 ; 
different accounts of, 461-480; the 
account considered and examined, 
467-477; passage from a letter of 
Paul concerning, 467, 468, 469 ; pas- 
sage from Hebrews concerning, 468 ; 
another account of, 473-481 ; its reli- 
gious significance, 477-481; faith in, 
held by the Apostles and Jesus, 650 
651. 

Revelation, Book of, its date, 22, 646, 
652; Book of, its character, 22, 24, 
398, 399, 401; ascribed to John, 645 ; 
the book examined as to contents and 
purpose, 646, 647 ; description of the 
second coming of Christ, 652-655 ; 
rejected by some from the sacred 
canon, 665. 

Rhegium, 634. 

Rhine, the, 1. 

Rhoda, 500. 

Rhodes, 613. 

Rich man. the, and his steward, parable 
of, 396, '397. 

Riches, mentioned by Jesus, 344. 

Robbers, the two to be crucified with 
Jesus, 447, 451, 459, 688, 689; their 
talk with Jesus on the cross, 453. 

Rolls, the prophetic, 140. 

Roman Carnival, the, 67. 

Roman Catholic Church, 319, 340. See 
Church and Catholic Church. 

Roman Catholics celebrate Christmas 
Eve, GS. 

Roman churches, excesses in, 366. 



744 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Ro7iian citizen, the, title of, 1, 2; the 
right of, 627. 

Roman Empire, 1-3, 52; its language, 2; 
compared to the Conqueror in Revela- 
tion, 653; represented as a monster 
with seven heads in Revelation, 654. 

Roman government, the, 198. 

Roman senate, the, 2. 

Romans, the, their religion at the time 
of Augustus, 2, 3; date of estab- 
lishment in Judaea, 3 ; sought by the 
Sadducees, 5 ; custom of pronouncing 
judgment, 439 ; custom of carrying 
out the sentence of death, 447 ; cruci- 
fixion introduced into Judaea by 
them, 449 ; custom of denying burial 
to crucified offenders, 458 ; represented 
as more friendly to the gospel than 
the Jews, 572. 

Romans, Epistle of Paul to the, 20, 573, 
606-609 ; fifteenth chapter of, 609 ; the 
sixteenth chapter of, 591 ; date of the 
sending of Paul's Epistle to, 609 ; im- 
pression made by Paul's letter, 635 ; 
expressions borrowed from, 648. 

Rome, its ancient power, 1 ; govern- 
ment of the provinces, 2 ; division of 
the provinces, 2 ; religious toleration, 
2, 3 ; decree of the census, 52, 55, 56 ; 
celebration of Christmas Day, when 
first observed, 66 ; man not important 
as an individual, 173 ; possible origin 
of the name Christian, 536 ; Paul de- 
termines to visit the city, 605; Paul 
a prisoner two years at, 625 ; the right 
of a Roman citizen, 627 ; Paul a pris- 
oner, 634-637; Paul arrives in the 
city, 634 ; Paul works for the gospel 
while a prisoner at Rome, 638, 639; 
Christians hated in, 640-642 ; outburst 
of infamy under Nero, 640-642 ; date 
of the terrible fire, 641; persecution 
of the Christians, 641, 642 ; how re- 
garded in Revelation, 646; its fall 
predicted in Revelation, 654 ; her war 
with the Lamb. 654; legend of Peter's 
bishopric, 661; rise of the Catholic 
Church, 661-665; the bishop of, 664. 

Rome, Community at, rumor of its 
founding, 645. 

Romulus, 40, 74. 

Rufus, 448, 591. 

Ruler of the Synagogue, 198. 

Sabbas, 484, 554. 

Sabbath, the, Jesus' s view of the precepts 
of the Jews concerning the dav, 10; 
at Capernaum, 130, 131, 136, 137 ; the 
service at the synagogue, 140 ; observ- 
ance of, by Jesus, 212, 214-219 ; how 
observed by Jesus, 251, 275 ; the first 
day of the" week takes its place, 662 ; 



Jesus charged with desecrating the 
day, 679, 681. 

Sacrifice, 3; of purification, 61, 62; 
Jesus' s view of, 218, 219; a pre- 
eminent act of religion, 219. 

Sadducees, the, aristocratical party of 
Israel, 5, 6, 43, 327; not at first 
thrown in contact with Jesus, 10 ; agree 
with the governor, 98 ; represented by 
Matthew to have simulated their in- 
terest in baptism, 110 ; pay little atten- 
tion to Jesus, 242 ; combine with the 
Pharisees against Jesus, 374-382; 
question Jesus on the resurrection, 
379 ; how regarded by Jesus, 386 ; 
their golden dinner-services, 389; 
probably present at Jesus's trial, 430; 
disturbed by the preaching of Peter, 
495 ; in the Sanhedrim, 622. 

Saint Nicholas's Dav, observance of, 
67, 68. 

Saint Paul's Bay, 633. 

Salamis, 537. 

Salem, the dyer, 84. 

Salmone, cape, 631. 

Salome, a follower of Jesus, 186, 473 ; 
at the cross, 451. 

Salome, step-daughter of Herod, 271; 
her identity, 272. 

Salvation, the Greek expression for, 61 ; 
Jesus questioned concerning, 342-346 ; 
baptism necessary to, 658. 

Samaria, given to Archelaus, 3, 4; 
again joined to the rest of Judea, 4 ; 
made a Roman province, 56; census 
of, 89 ; rise of a leader, 99 ; persecuted 
Christians take refuge in, 509; the 
work of Philip the Evangelist, 514- 
516 ; the missionary journey of Jesus 
unhistorical, 542 ; Paul journeys 
through, 554; Jesus's interview with 
the woman at the well, 677 ; the story 
of the woman at the well and its 
signification, 677, 678 ; Jesus received 
and believed in, 678. 

Samaritan, parable of "the good Sa- 
maritan," 298-300. 

Samaritans, the, hated by the mass of 
the Jews, 6; detested by many, 94, 
184; refuse to receive Jews, 192; re- 
lations of Jesus with them, 293-311; 
preaching of Philip, 514; how con- 
sidered by the Jews, 515 ; not on a par 
with the Jews, 677. 

Samos, 611. 

Samothrace, 564. 

Samson, 40, 48. 

Samuel, similarity in the account of, to 
that of Jesus's youth, 83; the pro- 
phetic roll, 140. 

Sanhedrim, the, 5, 6, 14, 69, 226, 277, 
331, 350, 367, 453; its members, 371; 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



'45 



Jieinbers hold a council to dispose of 
Jesus, 392; trial of Jesus, 428-433; 
reassemble, 437, 438; judge the dis- 
ciples, 495-498 ; trial of Stephen, 507, 
508, 510 ; Paul asks for a commission 
to go to Damascus, 522, 523; as- 
semble to judge Paul, 621; a depu- 
tation from, appears against him at 
Csesarea, 625, 626 ; complain of Paul 
to Festus, 627. 

Santa Claus, origin and use of the 
name, 67, 68. 

Sapphira, story of, 490-492. 

Sarah, 44, 46, 47. 

Sardis, Christian community estab- 
lished in, 590 ; communit}^ addressed 
in Revelation, 646, 647. 

Sarepta, 235. 

Satan, 22, 86, 136; the conflict with 
Jesus, and the meaning of the story, 
321-324; miracles to be done in his 
name, 652. 

Saturday, the service at the synagogue, 
140. 

Saturnalia, the, 67. 

Saturninus, Quintus Sentius, 56. 

Saturnus, 67. 

Saul, receives the name of Paul, 537. 
See Paul. 

Saviour, the Greek expression for, 61. 

" Sayings of the Lord," 30. 

Scandinavia, 435. 

Sceva, a high priest, 590. 

Scribes, the, 6, 63, 69, 83, 84, 92, 163; 
teachers of Jesus, 10; their formal- 
ism, 14; in Galilee 94; study the 
Law when in distress, 98; spoke on 
the authority of Scripture, 130; in 
the synagogue, 140, 141; have their 
adherents, 178; their displeasure at 
Jesus eating with publicans, 200, 201 ; 
their astonishment at Jesus' s forgive- 
ness of sins, 204 ; their influence, 219 ; 
mentioned by Jesus with respect, 224; 
interrogate Jesus concerning his neg- 
lect of "oral law," 276-281; demand 
a sign of Jesus, 288-292; Jesus 
makes them his enemies by cleansing 
the temple, 367; belong to the San- 
hedrim, 371; their attitude towards 
Jesus at Jerusalem, 374, 375; the 
judgment of Jesus concerning the 
adulteress, 376, 377 ; attacked in ar- 
gument by Jesus, 383-386; Jesus's 
utterances against, 384-386; at the 
trial of Jesus, 430. 

Scriptures, taught to Jewish children, 
93; Jesus's study of, 93, 94; read 
and expounded in the synagogue, 
140, 141; handled by Hillel, 220; 
Jews' reverence for, 679. 

Scythopolis, town of Galilee, 94. 



Secundus, 568, 609, 610. 

Selencia, 537. 

Senate, the Roman, 2. 

Seneca, 572. 

Sepulchres, whited, 384, 385. 

Sergius Paulus, 537. 

"Sermon on the Mount," the, 141, 156, 
163, 164, 168, 224, 231, 339. 

Seven, the, 506, 511-513; recognized 
as the leaders of the Grecian Jews, 
511. 

Seventy, story of its appointment and 
work, in Luke, 542, 543; their pres- 
ervation of the community at Jerusa 
lem, 545. 

Shalmaneser, 7. 

Shammai, 219, 220; revives the cus 
torn of washing the hands before and 
after eating, 277; views of, on di- 
vorce, 339. 

Sharon, plain of, 613. 

Sheba, Queen of, 303. 

Shechem, 336, 677. 

Sheep, fallen into a hole, parable of, 
216, 217. 

Sheep-gate, the, 360, 449, 678. 

Shepherds, the, 53, 54, 64. 

Shiloh, 81, 83. 

Shoemakers, business followed by some 
of the Rabbis, 90. 

Sicily, 634. 

Sidon, 235, 259, 282, 303, 501, 630. 

Sign, Jesus asked to give a "sign," 
285, 288-292; of Jona, 302, 303; 
"the sign," 303. 

" Signs of the times," 289. 

Silas, accompanies Paul on a mission- 
ary tour, 19, 554, 564; thrown into 
prison, and his deliverance, 565, 566 ; 
remains at Berea, 568; rejoins Paul 
at Corinth, 571; his labors at Cor- 
inth, 571, 573; entrusted with the 
First Epistle of Peter, 659. 

Siloam, falling of the tower mentioned 
by Jesus, 348. 

Siloam, Pool of, 681. 

Silvanus, 573; information regarding 
him, 642. 

Simeon, his prediction regarding Jesus, 
62, 63 ; beholds the Messiah, 62 ; ut- 
ters a song of praise, 62 ; the story 
of, considered, 63-66. 

Simeon Niger, 536. 

Simon, a magician, story of, 617, 618. 

Simon, a Pharisee, Jesus at his house, 
205-208 ; Jesus anointed at his house 
bv the woman said to be Mary Mag- 
dalen, 205-208; his horror of Jesus, 
245, 246. 

Simon, brother of Jesus, 238. 

Simon, the leper, host of Jesus, 370; 
Jesus anointed by the woman with 



82 



748 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



the alabaster vase at his house, 405- 
407, 683. 

Siuion of Bethany, 185 ; owner of the 
garden of Gethsemane, 185. 

Simon of Cyrene, compelled to carry 
the cross of Jesus, 448 ; conjecture of 
his discipleship, 44S; mentioned as 
the father of Rufus, 448, 591. 

Simon Peter, his surname, 181. See 
Peter. 

Simon the Canaanite, the Apostle, story 
in the Apocrypha, 86; a disciple of 
Jesus, 180 ; belonged to the party 
of the Zelots, 181. 

Sin offering, 61. 

Sinai, Mount, Moses and the covenant 
with the Lord, 16, 212, 276, 416, 487, 
508; Moses compared with Jesus, 
141, 322. 

Sinners, the, explanation of the term, 
7, 197-199; especially drawn to Je- 
sus, 196-200; relations of Jesus with 
them, 245, 246, 275; Jesus's conduct 
towards them offensive to the Phari- 
sees, 245, 246; conversion of, 289. 

Sinterklaas, corruption of St. Nicholas, 
67. 

Sion, 483. 

Sion, Monnt, 654. 

Smiths, 90. 

Smyrna, 592; Christianity established 
in, 590; community of, "addressed in 
Revelation, 646, 647. 

Socrates, 570. 

Sodom, 259, 303. 

Solomon, signification of name, 61; a 
book on the healing art, attributed to 
him, 133 ; quoted bv Jesus, 169 ; sign 
of, 302, 303. 

Solomon, Song of, 118. 

Solomon's Colonnade, 496. 

"Son of David," 35, 45, 208, 383, 
518. 

Son of God, 670, 671. 

"Son of Man," the use of the term, 
199, 214, 252, 314, 315, 325, 330, 331, 
350, 352, 354, 414, 426, 432. 

Sopater, 568, 609, 610. 

Sosthenes, 572, 590; the letter to the 
Corinthians, 599. 

Sower, the parable of, 153 ; companion 
parable of, 644. 

Spain, 435, 605. 

Spirit, gender of the Hebrew word for, 
57. See Holy Spirit. 

Siachys, 591. 

Star of Bethlehem, the, 68, 69, 72-74, 
76. 

Stephanas, his household baptized by 
Paul, 571; co-worker of Paul, 599. 

.Stephen, 16; proclaims a higher relig- 
ion upon the return of Jesus as the 



Messiah, 16 ; his party take refuge at 
Antioch, 17 ; pioneer of the broader 
school of the followers of Jesus, 18 ; 
consecrated to the service of Jesus, 
506 ; his earnest preaching, 506, 507 ; 
tried by the Council, 507, 508 ; stoned 
to death, 509; the story of his trial 
considered, 509-511; significance of. 
514. 

Stephen, Day for the commemoration 
of his martyrdom, 66. 

Stoics, 570. 

Sunday, Easter, 363. 

Sunday, Palm, 363. 

Supper, the, and invited guests, parable 
of, 305. 

Supper, the Lord's Supper, 413-418, 
662, 679, 680, 684, 685. 

Susanna, a follower of Jesus, 186. 

Swine, how regarded by the Jews, 575. 

Sycamore tree, the legend of, 78. 

Sychar, 677. 

Synagogue, the, 93 ; structure and cus- 
toms of, 140 ; the prophetic rolls, 140 ; 
its rulers and elders, 198 ; its grow- 
ing power, 219 ; the Great Synagogue, 
277. 

Synoptical Gospels, the, 27-32, 378; 
used by the author of the Fourth 
Gospel, 673; account of time of Je- 
sus's death, 684. 

Syntyche, 565; exhorted by Paul, 640. 

Syracuse, 634. 

Syria, 1, 3, 4, 9, 76, 125; communities 
of Jews established in, 7; Antioch, 
the capital of, 17, 516 ; governor of, 
at time of Jesus's birth, 56 : mission 
of Paul in, 533-541, 555, 563; collis- 
ion between the Christian schools, 
547. 

Syrtis, 631. 

Tabernacles, Feast of, 362, 680. 

Tabitha, 557. 

Tabor, 237. 

Tailors, the business of, followed by 
some of the Rabbis, 90. 

Talent, meaning of, 165. 

Talents, parable of the, 165, 166. 

Talmud, the, 27, 133, 277 ; mention of 
Jesus in, 78 ; accounts of public teach- 
ing, 92; classes known as "the peo- 
ples of the land," 199 ; story of Hillel, 
219, 220 ; evidences of Jesus's trial in. 
untrustworthy, 429 ; number of houses 
of prayer in Jerusalem, 506. 

Tannersj business of, followed by some 
of the Rabbis, 90. 

Tarichsea, 125. 

Tarsus. 506, 521, 620. 

Tavium, 563. 

Tax-collectors, the, 7. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



747 



Temple, the, date of the destruction of, 
in the revolt under Gessius Floras, 4; 
that of Zerubbabel thrown down, and 
a new one erected by Herod, 3 ; story 
of Jesus at the age of twelve, 79-83; 
dear to the Israelite, 360; Jesus en- 
ters the, 363, 364; the traffic carried 
on in the, 365, 366 ; Jesus expels the 
traders, 366, 367 ; Jesus's saving, of 
his power to raise it in three days, 
367, 676; Jesus teaches in, 371-382, 
393-395, 680-682 ; the free-will offer- 
ings, 394 ; attachment of the people 
to, 431. 

Temptations of Jesus, 321-324. 

Ten Commandments, the, referred to by 
Jesus, 226, 227, 278, 280, 343. 

Tertullus, conducts the case against 
Paul, 625, 626. 

Testament. See New Testament, and 
Old Testament. 

Thaddaeus, 181; name sometimes sub- 
stituted for that of Lebbseus, 181. 

Thessalonians, First Epistle to, 23, 573 ; 
if genuine, one of the earliest speci- 
mens of Christian literature, 573. 

Thessalonians, Second Epistle to the, 
23, 651, 652. 

Thessalonica, 19 ; community of be- 
lievers established by Paul, 567. 

Theudas, 497, 498, 499. 

Thomas, account in the Apocrypha of 
Jesus in the temple, 83, 84. 

Thomas, a disciple of Jesus, 180; on 
the Galilaean Sea, 666 ; accompanies 
Jesus to Bethany, 682; his doubts 
quieted bv Jesus, 690. 

"Thornbush," chapter of the, 379, 380. 

Thrace, 564. 

Three Kings, feast of, 78. 

Three Taverns, the, 634, 635. 

Thursday, the day on which Moses as- 
cended Mount Sinai, 212. 

Thyatira, 564; Christian community es- 
tablished in, 590; community at, ad- 
dressed in Revelation, 646, 617. 

Tiberias, Sea of, 124, 125. 

Tiberias, town of Galilee, 94, 123, 137. 

Tiberius, 96, 97 ; his name on a Roman 
coin, 376. 

Timaeus, his son, 355. 

Timon, consecrated to the service of 
Jesus, 506. 

Timotheus, accompanies Paul on a 
missionarv tour, 19; follower of Paul, 
534, 539. 

Timothy, companion of Paul, 555, 563, 
564, 609, 610; sent to Thessalonica, 
568; rejoins Paul at Corinth, 571; his 
labors at Corinth, 571, 573 ; fellow- 
laborer of Paul, 543, 590; recom- 
mended to the Corinthians by Paul, 



599 ; sent to Macedonia and Achaia, 
602 ; with Paul in Rome, 638 ; joins in 
the greeting to the Philippians in the 
epistle to, 638; Paul's confidence in, 
639 ; a prisoner, and his release, 642. 

Timothy, Epistles to, their authorship, 
23. 

Timothv, First Epistle, a pastoral epis- 
tle, 663. 

Timothy, Second Epistle, a pastoral 
epistle, 663; letter to, in the second 
of Timothy, 637. 

Titus, accompanies Paul and Barnabas 
to Jerusalem, 18; follower of Paul, 
534, 543 ; accompanies Paul to Jeru- 
lem, 547; the centre of a dispute be- 
tween Paul and the party at Jerusa- 
lem, 548, 555; returns to Antioch, 
550; possibly a companion of Paul 
in his missionary labors, 562; 
fellow-laborer of * Paul, 590 ; de- 
spatched to Corinth, 602 ; returns to 
Paul, 602, 603; companion of Paul, 
609 ; records circumstance about 
Eutychus, 611; his narrative regard- 
ing Paul's visit to Jerusalem, 611, 
613-615 ; his narrative modified in 
Acts, 633, 634 ; reported to be labor- 
ing in Crete and Dalmatia, 642. 

Titus, Epistle to, its authorship, 23 ; a 
pastoral epistle, 663. 

Tombs, how regarded bv the Jews., 
575. 

Traitor's Hill, the, 449. 

Transfiguration, the, 502-504. 

Transjordanic district, the, 104, 115, 
682. 

Treasure-house, the, 394. 

Trinity, rise of the doctrine of the, 
671.* 

Troas, 563, 564, 579, 602, 612; Paul 
spends a week here, 611. 

Trogyllium, Cape, 611, 612. 

Trophimus, 609, 610, 619. 

Tryphena, 591. 

Trvphosa, 591. 

Twelfth Night, Feast of, 78. 

Twelve, the, their names, 127, 128, 178, 
180, 181 ; their relations with Jesus, 
178-184, 190-196 ; significance of the 
number, 180 ; their occupations, 180, 
181; distinctions between "disciples " 
and Apostles, 180 ; their number filled 
by the choice of Matthias, 484;. 
spoken of in Corinthians and Revela- 
tion, 485; recognized by the Hebrews 
at Jerusalem as their leaders, 511 ; 
their views differ from those of Paul, 
530; Paul's acquaintance with, ac- 
count in Acts, 533 ; allow their task to 
pass to the Seventy, 545; their atti- 
tude toward Paul, 583, 584; exalted 



748 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



in Revelation, 646 ; their authority not 
recognized by Marcion and his party, 
657; their authority not contested 
after the death of Paul, 658; asked 
by Jesus not ro forsake him, 680 ; see 
and hear Jesus after his crucifixion, 
690. See Apostles and Disciples. 

Two Commandments, the, 381, 382. 

Tychicus, 590, 609, 610. 

Tyrannus, 589. 

Tyre, 259, 281, 283, 303, 501, 612, 613. 

"Unclean," explanation of the term, 
7, 17, 199; dread of becoming un- 
clean, 277, 278. 

Universal (Catholic) Church, the, 21, 
22. 

University of Jerusalem, 6, 93, 140. 

Urbanus, '591. 

Uriel, the angel, 46. 

Veronica, legend of her handkerchief, 

448. 
Via Dolorosa, the, 449. 
Vienna (in Gaul), 4. 
Vineyard and the laborers, parable of, 

296-298. 
Virgins, the foolish, parable of, 403- 

405. 
Vision, the meaning of, among Biblical 

writers, 119. 

Wafer, the, 418. 
Wandering Jew, the, 448, 449. 
Water, turned to wine, miracle of, 232, 

233, 676 ; Jesus walking on the, 268, 

269, 679 ; flowing from Jesus's side, 

the symbol of purification at the 

crucifixion, 689. 
Wedding feast, the, parable of, 304. 
Wedding garment, the, parable of, 307, 

308. 
Weihnachten, 68. 
Well, the, of Nazareth, 90. 
Whited sepulchres, 384, 385. 
Whitsuntide, feast of, 66. 
Widow, the mite given to the poor, 394. 
Widow and the judge, parable of, 656. 
Wine, symbol of Jesus's blood in the 

Lord's Supper, 415-418, 679. 
Wisdom, the word called Logos, 670. 
"Wisdom of God," 399. 
Wisdom of Solomon, enters into the 

Alexandrian philosophy, 669, 670. 
Witches, belief in, 134. 



Woeful way, the, 449. 

Woman and the lost coin, paiable ot 
210. 

Women, Court of the, 394. 

Women, humiliated by customs of mar- 
riage and divorce, *339; dignity and 
rights of, in Jesus's mind, 341; ad- 
dressed by Jesus on his way to the 
cross, 448. 

Word, the, 669; how used in the Fourth 
Gospel, 670, 671-673; made flesh, 
674, 675. 

Worship, image-worship, 2. 

Yahweh, 6 ; attempt to effect a union 
between the religion of, and the 
Greek philosophy, 7; his worship 
thought to be desecrated by Jesus's 
intercourse with the unclean, 11 ; old 
prophecies concerning, 49, 103, 109, 
110, 143, 416; the servant of, de- 
scribed by the second Isaiah, 196, 
197; his coming expected by John, 
255. 

Yezua, 60. 

Yule feast, 67. 

Yule-log, the, 67. 

Zacch^eus, 14 ; greeted by Jesus, 353, 

354; story of, 355, 356. 
Zachariah, "father of John the Baptidt, 

43-46; account of his vision, 44; 

struck dumb, 45 ; regains speech, 45 ; 

story of, considered, 46-51 ; his song 

of praise, 47, 102. 
Zealots, the, 4, 5, 6, 378; their party 

watchword, 4, 7. See Zelots. 
Zebedee, 127, 128; sons of, 129, 180, 

310, 421, 666; his wife a follower of 

Jesus, 186, 351; his sons rebuked 

310. 
Zebedeus, 621. 
Zechariah, his murder, referred to in 

Luke, 399. 
Zechariah, the prophet, 483 ; fulfilment 

of a prophecy, 361, 362. 
Zelot, appellation of Simon the Canaan- 

ite, 180. 
Zelots, the, 181. See Zealots. 
Zerubbabel, the temple of, thiowu 

down, 3. 
Zeus, 539. 
Zion, Mount, 3. 
Zodiac, the, 74. 
Zoroaster, 40, 76. 



TABLE 



BIBLE PASSAGES TRANSLATED AND USED FOR REFERENCE. 



OLD TESTAMENT. 

GENESIS. 



i. 2 . . 

ii. 24 . 
iv. 24 . 

xvii. 17 
xviii. 13 
xviii. 19 
xxii. 18 
xxxv. 2 
xlix. 11 



EXODUS 
iv. 19 . 
iv. 22 . 
vii. 19 . 
ix. 12 . 
x. 1 . 
x. 20 . 
x. 27 . 
xii. 26 f. 
xii. 46 . 
xiii. 8 . 
xiii. 14 f 
xvi. 
xix. 10 
xix. 10, 14 
xxi. 15, 17 
xxi. 32 
xxii. 1 . 
xxii. 1, 4 
xxii . 4 . 
xxii. 7 . 
xxiii. 4, 5 
xxiii, 17 
xxiv. 6-8 
xxiv. 15, 16 
xxiv. 18 
xxx. 11 ff 
xxxiv. 28 



LEVITICUS 

xiii 

xiv. .... 
*vii. 8 ff. . . . 



118 

340 

161 

48 

48 

93 

495 

104 

362 



74 

75 

50 

65 

65 

65 

65 

93 

689 

93 

93 

148 

104 

104 

93 

410 

354 

203 

354 

354 

229 

80 

416 

503 

503 

320 

322 



203 
203 
536 



xix. 17, 18 . . . 229 
xix. 18 .... 381 



NUMBERS. 



v. 6, 7 . 
ix. 12 . 
xi. 25 . 
xii. 6-8 
xv. 32-36 
xv. 37 ff. 
xix. 2 . 
xix. 7 . 
xxiv. 17 
xxviii. 9. 



10 



203, 354 

. 689 

. 119 

. 119 

. 216 

. 250 

. 361 

. 104 

. 73 

. 215 



DEUTERONOMY. 

iv. 14 277 

vi. 4 381 

vi. 5 381 

vi. 7 93 

vi. 8 250 

vi. 13 322 

vi. 16 322 

vi. 20-25 .... 93 

vii. 2 229 

viii. 2 ..... 322 
viii. 3 . . . .321 

viii. 14-16 ... 322 

ix. 9 322 

ix. 18 322 

xi. 19 93 

xiii 433 

xiii. 1, 2 .... 204 

xvi. 7 421 

xvii. 10 .... 277 

xvii. 7 377 

xviii. 15 .... 503 

xviii. 15-18 ... 49 

xviii. 15 if. . . . 495 

xviii. 19-22 . . . 433 

xviii. 22 ... . 433 

xix. 15 .... 663 

xxi. 3 861 

xxi. 6 ff. ... 444 

I xxi. 22, 23 . . . 688 

I xxi. 23 . . . 458 



xxiv. 1 . . . . 339 

xxvii. 15-26 . . . 263 

xxxii. 17 .... 323 

xxxiv. 10 . . . . 119 

JOSHUA, 

iv. 6 f. 93 

JUDGES. 

xiii 48 

xiii. 5 40 

RUTH. 

Ruth ..... 229 

1 SAMUEL. 

i. 11 48 

i. 21 ff 83 

ii. 19 83 

ii. 26 . . . . 48, 83 

iii 83 

iii. 1-10 .... 54 

iii. 19-21 .... 48 

vi. 7 361 

x. 6 119 

x. 10 119 

xv. 22 221 

xvi. 13 .... 119 

xix. 20 .... 119 

xix. 23 .... 119 

xxi. 1-6 ... . 214 

2 SAMUEL. 

iii. 28 444 

v. 8 367 

xxiv. 1-9 ... 56 

xxiv. 7 . . . . 65 

1 KINGS. 

xvii. 1 50 

xvii. ff 49 

xvii. 8-16 .... 148 

xvii. 17-24 ... 286 

xvi. 18 .... 128 

xix. 2 272 

xix. 8-18 . . , . 50 



750 



TABLE OF BIBLE PASSAGES. 



xix 19-21 




. . 127 


xxi. 25 . . 


. 272 


2 KINGS. 


i 8 . . . . 


. 101 


i. 10-12 




. . 192 


ii. 9 ff. . 




. 119 


ii. 13, 14 




. 101 


iv. 18-37 




. 286 


iv. 42-44 




. 148 


v. . . 




. 310 


vi. 17 . 




119, 468 


xi. 15 . 




. 619 


xx. 5, 8 




. 328 


1 CHRONIC 


LES. 


xvi. 36 . . . 


. 263 


NEHEMIi? 


lH. 


viii. 6 . . . 


. 263 


viii. 17 . . . 


. 60 


xiii. 28, 29 et seq 


. . 229 


ESTHEI 




v. 2, 3 . . . 


272 


v. 6 . . . . 


. 272 


vii. 2 . . . . 


. 272 


JOB. 




ix. 8 . . . . 


. 269 


xiv. 1 . . . . 


. 59 


PSALMS 




ii. 1, 2 . , - - 


. 496 


ii. 7 . . 


119, 


503, 538 


viii. 2 . 




. 367 


xvi. 8-11 




. 486 


xvi. 10 




466, 538 


xxii. 7-9 




. 452 


xxxi. 5 




. 455 


xliv. 12-14 


: . . 


. 96 


xliv. 24 




. 96 


xlvi. 2 . 




, . 194 


lxix. 22 




' . 484 


lxix. 23 




. 484 


lxix. 25 




. 484 


lxxii. 10 




. 76 


lxxii. 10 




. 76 


lxxii. 10, : 


LI . . 


. 74 


lxxiv. 9 . 


. 


112, 290 


lxxviii. 24 




. 148 


lxxx. 17 




. 315 


xci. 11, 12 




. 321 


xci. 13 . . 




. 543 


cvi. 48 . . 


. . 


. 263 


cix. 8 . . 




, 446 


cix. 18 . 




. 484 


ex. 1 . . 




432, 488 


ex viii. 22, 23 . . 


. 390 


exxxii. 11. . . 


. 486 


exxxvii. 7-9 . 


. 229 


exxxix. 21 


,22 , 


. 229 



PROVERBS, 

xi. 30b 128 

xxv. 21 ... . 229 

xxxi . 3, 7 ... 450 



SONG OF SOLOMON, 
ii. 12 .... 118 



ISAIAH. 



i. 11-17 
i. 16 . 
ii. 2-4 . 
v. 1. . 
vi. . . 
vi. 9, 10 
vii. 14 . 
viii. 2, 16 
xi. 1, 10 
xi. 2 . 
xix. 1 . 
xx. 2 . 
xxix. 13 
xxix, 18 
xxix. 18, 
xxxii. 15 
xxxv. 3 
xxxv. 5, 6 
xlii. 1 . 
xlii. 1-4 
xlii. 6 . 
xlii. 7 . 
xliv. 3 . 
xlv. 7 . 
xlix. 6 
xlix. 7 . 
1. 6 . . 
liii. 7 . 
liii. 10 . 
liii. 12 . 
Iv. 3 . 
lvi. 7 . 
Ix. 3-10 
lxi. 1 . 
lxi. 1, 2 
lxii. 11 
lxiv. 2 . 
lxvi. 23 



94 



. 221 

. 104 

. 294 

94, 297 

. 118 

94, 143 

. 40 

. 178 

. 38 

. 119 

. 77 

. 101 

94, 221 

94, 254 

. 210 

. 102 

. 94 

210, 254 

120, 503 

. 197 

. 64 

. 210 

102, 104 

. 65 

64, 538 

74, 76 

. 433 

. 433 

. 466 

419, 453 

466, 538 

94, 365 

74 

210, 254 

234 

3G1 

120 

294 



JEREMIAH 



i. . . . 

vii. 11 . . 
vii. 21-23 . 
xviii. 7, 8 et seq. 
xxiii. 5 
xxx. 9 
xxxi. 9 
xxxi. 15 . 
xxxiii. 15, 17, 21, 
xxxvi. 4 . . . 
xlvi. 10 



2 1 



118 

365 

221 

307 

38 

38 

75 

75 

, 38 

ITS 

22:J 



EZEKIEL. 



i. 


. lj.8 


xxxiv. 23 f . . 


. XZ 


xxxvi. 25 . . 


. 104 


xxxvi. 26-29 . 


. 102 


xxxvii. 24 f . . 


. 38 


xxxix. 29 . . 


. 102 



DANIEL. 


VH. 11. . . . 


. 269 


vii. 13 . . . 


. 432 


vii. 13, 14 . 


. 315 


vii. 18 . . 


. 315 


vii. 22 . . . 


. 315 


vii. 27 . . . 


. 315 


viii. 16 . . 


. 48 


ix. 21 . . . 


. 48 


x. 15 . . . 


. 48 


xii. 2, 3 . . 


. 333 



HOSEA. 

iii. 5 38 

vi. 2 . . 328, 466, 471 
vi. 6 . . . . 218, 221 
xi. 1 75 



JOEL. 



ii. 10 . 
ii. 28, 29 
ii. 28-32 
ii. 31 . 
iii. 15 . 



289 
102 
486 
289 
289 



AMOS. 

v. 21-24 .... 221 

ix. 11 38 

JONAH. 

Jonah 229 

MICHAH. 

iv. 2 et seq. ... 294 

v. 2 38 

vi. 8 . . . . 219, 221 

vii. 6 347 

HABAKKUK. 

ii. 4 607 

ZEPHANIAH. 

i. 14-18 .... 101 

ZECHARIAH. 

iii. 8 38 

vi. 12 38 

ix. 9 361 

xi. 12, 13 . . . . 410 

xii. 8 38 

xii. 10 689 

xiii. 1 . . . .104 

xiii. 4 ... .101 

xiii. 7 . . . 419 



TABLE OF BIBLE PASSAGES. 



751 



MAI ACHI. 


v. 3 12 . 


... 155 


viii. 14-16 


... 122 


liv j. . . 49,255 


v. 6 . . . 


... 149 


viii. 16 


. ... 136 


iii. 2 . . 


. . . 101 


v. 10-12 . 


... 167 


viii. 18 


. ... 137 


n. 17 . 






. . 105 


v. 12 . . 


... 302 


viii. 19 


. ... 141 


iv. l . 






. . 101 


v. 13 . . 


... 164 


viii. 20-25 


5 ... 178 


iv. 2 . 






. . 105 


v. 13-16 . 


. . 156, 163 


viii. 23-2" 


' . . . 25'9 


iv. 5, 6 






. . 49 


v. 14-16 . 


. . 164 


viii. 28-34 


t ... 562 


iv. 6 . 






. . 101 


v. 17 . 


. . 220, 225 


viii. 29 


. . . . 136 




v. 38, 19 


... 585 


ix. 1. . 


. . . .138 




v. 20 . . 


... 242 


ix. 1-13 


. ... 196 




v 20-22 . 


... 219 


ix. 1 ff . 


. ... 276 


APOCEYPHA. 


v. 23. 24 . 


219, 242, 264 


ix. LI . 


. ... 141 




v. 23-26 . 


... 161 


ix. 13 . 


. . . . 198 


JESUS SIKACH. 
xlvi. 1 .... 61 
xlviii. 1-10 ... 101 
xlviii. 1-12 ... 49 


v. 25, 26 . 
v. 27, 28 . 


... 347 
. . 219 


ix. 14 . 
ix. 14-17 


. 107, 108. 250 
. . . . '211 


v. 29, 30 . 
v. 31, 32 . 
v. 33-37 . 


... 336 

. . . 339 
... 242 


ix. 15 . 
ix. 18 . 
ix. 18, 19 


. ... 193 
. ... 261 
. ... 286 


1 MACCABEES, 
iv. 46 . . . . 112, 290 
ix. 27 . . . . 112, 290 
xiv. 41 . . . 112, 290 


v. 33-18 . 
v. 38-42 . 
v. 39-41 . 
v. 45 . . 
v. 46, 47 . 


... 219 
. 225 
... 598 
159, 176, 198 
... 199 


ix. 20-22 
ix. 23-26 
ix. 27-31 
ix. 28 . 
ix. 32-34 


. ... 208 
. ... 286 
. ... 209 
. ... 261 
. ... 587 


2 MACCABEES. 

ii. 4-8 99 

vii. 9 333 

vii. 14 333 

vii. 23 333 


v. 47 . . 
vi. 1-6 . . 
vi. 5 . . 
vi. 7-13 . 
vi. 9 . . 
vi. 12 . . 


. 294 
... 219 
. . 108, 140 
... 259 
... 91 
... 261 


ix. 35 . 
ix. 36 . 
ix. 37 . 
ix. 38 . 
x. 1-14. 
x. 3. . 


. . 136, 177 

. ... 175 
. ... 177 
... 177 
. ... 178 
. ... 201 




vi. 14, 15 . 


... 161 


x. 5b-42 


. . . . 183 




vi. 16 . . 


... 108 


x. 6. . 


. ... 199 




vi. 16-18 . 


... 219 


x. 7. . 


. ... 114 


NEW TESTAMENT. 


vi. 17 . . 


... 225 


x. 14, 15 


... 259 




vi. 19-21 . 


. . 163, 168 


x. 16-23 


. ... 393 


MATTHEW. 


vi. 22, 23 . 


. . 159 


x. 17 . 


... 198 


i 35 


vi. 24 . . 


. . 169 


x. 23 . 


... 315 


i. 21 . . 






. . 60 


vi. 24-34 . 


. 163 


x. 24, 25 


... 127 


i. 23 . . 






. 41, 61 


vi. 25-34 . 


... 169 


x. 24, 25a 


... 189 


ii. . . . 






. . 68 


vi. 30 . . 


... 139 


x. 26, 27 


... 190 


ii. 1 . . . 






- 40 


vi. 32 . . 


. . 294 


x. 28-31 


... 170 


ii. 3, 4 . . 






. 75 


vii. 1, 2 . 


... 160 


x. 32, 33 


... 190 


ii. 4-6 . . 






. 39 


vii. 11 et seq 


. . . 176 


x. 34-36 . 


... 347 


ii. 17, 18 . 






. 75 


vii. 3-5 


... 161 


x. 37 . . 


... 127 


ii. 20 . . 






. 74 


vii. 6 . - 


. . 518, 585 


x. 37-39 . 


... 178 


ii. 22, 23 . 






. 40 


vii. 7-13 


... 259 


x. 39 . . 


... 190 


ii. 23 . . 






. 40 


vii. 9-11 . 


... 91 


x. 40 . . 


... 190 


iii. 1-12 . 






. 96 


vii. 9, 16 . 


... 147 


x. 41, 42 . 


... 393 


iii. 2 . . 






98, 114 


vii. 12 . . 


. . 219, 220 


xi. 1 . . 


... 261 


iri. 5 . . 






. 99 


vii. 13, 14 


... 160 


xi. 1-15 . 


. . . 253 


iii. 7 . . 






. 110 


vii. 15 . . 


... 585 


xi. 2 . . 


... 117 


iii. 10 . . 






. 160 


vii. 16-20 . 


... 160 


xi. 2-6 . . 


... 120 


iii. 11, 12 . 






. 109 


vii. 18-20 . 


... 114 


xi. 2-19 . 


... Ill 


iii. 13-17 . 






. 112 


vii. 19 . . 


. . . 160 


xi. 5 . . 


94, 158, 174, 


iii. 16, 17 . 






. 117 


vii. 21 . . 


... 159 




210, 286 


iii. 17 . . 






. 120 


vii. 22, 23 


... 585 


xi. 7 . . 


... 108 


iv. 1 . 




116, 119 j vii. 24-27 . 


. . 139, 154 


xi. 9 . . 


... 104 


iv. 1-11 




. 311 vii. 28, 29 


. . . 131 


xi. 10 . . 


... 51 


iv. 12-25 . . 




. 122 


vii. 31 . . 


... 282 


xi. 11 . . 


. 51, 59, 108 


iv. 17 . . 




. 114 


viii. 1-4 . 


. . . 196 


xi. 12 . . 


... 99 


'v. 23 . . . 




137, 177 


viii. 5-13 . 


. . . 292 


xi. 14 . . 


. . 49, 51 


V. 23, 24 . . 




. 136 


viii. 10 . 


. . 282 


xi. 16 . . 


... 127 


». 1. . 






. 139 


viii. 14 


... 139 


xi. 16, 17 . 


... 91 



752 



TABLE OF BIBLE PASSAGES. 



xi. 16-19 
xi. 18 . 
xi. 20 ff 
xi. 20-24 
xi. 21-24 
xi. 25, 26 
xi. 27 . 
xi. 28-30 
xii. 1-14 
xii. 14 . 
xii. 15 . 
xii. 17-21 
xii. 18 . 
xii. 22 . 
xii 22-37 
xii 23 . 
xii. 24 . 
xii. 33-35 
xii. 34 . 
xii. 36, 37 
xii. 38 . 
xii. 38, 39 
xii. 38, 42 
xii. 40 et 
xii. 41, 42 
xii. 43-45 
xii. 45 . 
xii. 46 . 
xii. 46-50 
xii. 46 f 
xii. 47-50 
xii. 48-50 
xiii. 1 . 
xiii. 1, 2 
xiii. 1-23 
xiii. 3-8 
xiii. 3-9 
xiii. 10-17 
xiii. 12 . 
xiii. 14 . 
xiii. 14, 15 
xiii. 14 f 
xiii. 16, 17 
xiii. 18-23 
xiii. 19 ff 
xiii. 24-30 
xiii. 31-33 
xiii. 31-35 
xiii. 33 . 
xiii. 34, 35 
xiii. 36 . 
xiii. 36-43 
xiii. 44 . 
xiii. 44-48 
xiii. 45, 46 
xiii. 47, 48 
xiii. 51, 52 
xiii. 54 . 
xiii. 54-57. 
xiii. 54-58. 
xiii. 54 ff . 
xiii. 55 . . 



seq, 



. 241 
99, 108 
. 126 
. 253 
. 302 
. 191 
. 196 

175. 281 
. 211 

242, 270 

136. 282 
. 197 
. 120 
. 587 
. 576 
. 285 

204, 276 
. 160 
. 110 
. 587 

242, 243 
. 284 
. 292 
. 471 
. 302 

135, 347 
. 186 

112,126 
. 234 
. 91 
. 92 
57, 191 
. 138 
. 139 
. 139 
. 91 
. 153 
. 143 

127, 146 
. 302 
. 143 
. 94 
64, 163 
. 153 
. 127 
. 643 
. 152 
. 139 
. 91 
. 142 
. 138 
. 643 
. 144 
. 139 
. 145 

130, 154 
. 139 
40, 92 
. 95 
. 234 
. 126 
, 56 



xiii. 55 . . 
xiii. 55, 56 
xiii. 56 . , 
xiii. 57 . 
xiv. l-13a 
xiv. 3, 4 
xiv. 13-21 
xiv. 14 . , 
xiv. 15, 19 
xiv. 21 . 
xiv. 22-33 
xiv. 23 . 
xiv. 30, 31 
xiv. 31 . 
xiv. 36 . 
xv. 1 . 
xv. 1-20 
xv. 3, 4. 
xv. 3-6. 
xv. 6, 11 
xv. 7 . 
xv. 8 f . 
xv. 9 . 
xv. 10 . 
xv. 11 . 
xv. 14 . 
xv. 21 . 
xv. 21-28 
xv. 24 . 
xv. 29 . 
xv. 29-31 
xv. 30 . 
xv. 32-38 
xv. 38 . 
xv. 39 . 
xvi. 1 . 
xvi. 1-3 
xvi. 5-12 
xvi. 6 . 
xvi 11 . 
xvi. 12 . 
xvi. 13 . 
xvi. 13, 14 
xvi. 13-20 
xvi. 14 . 
xvi. 18 . 
xvi. 21-28 
xvi. 22, 23 
xvi. 23 . 
xvi. 25 . 
xvi. 26 . 
xvi. 27, 28 
xvi. 28 . 
xvii. 1-! 
xvii. 3 , 
xvii. 5 . 
xvii. 10. 
xvii. 10-13 
xvii. 11 
xvii. 11-13 
xvii. 12. . 
xvii. 12, 13 



90 

90 
112 

40, 57, 92 
. 270 
. 122 

139, 148 
. 136 
. 139 

139, 185 
. 259 
. 261 
. 469 
. 194 
. 136 
. 95 
. 270 
. 221 
. 219 
. 225 
. 302 
. 94 
. 221 
. 147 

221, 225 
. 355 



255 



. 502 
199 

139,282 
. 209 
. 136 

139, 149 

139, 185 
. 282 
. 242 
. 284 
. 149 

242, 281 
. 242 
. 242 
. 139 
. 258 
. 311 
. 50 
. 181 
. 325 
. 192 
. 116 

190, 333 
. 176 
. 655 
. 315 
. 502 
. 50 
. 120 
. 50 

256, 325 
. 50 
. 51 

253,274 
. Ill 



xvii. 14-21 
xvii. 15. . 
xvii. 16, 19 
xvii. 20 . 
xvii. 22, 23 
xvii. 24. . 
xvii. 24-27. 
xviii. 1 . , 
xviii. 2, 3 . 
xviii. 3, 10 
xviii. 4 . . 
xviii. 5 . . 
xviii. 6-10. 
xviii. 10 . 
xviii. 11 . 
xviii. 12-14 
xviii. 15-17 
xviii. 17 . 
xviii. 18 . 
xviii. 19, 20 
xviii. 20 . 
xviii. 21, 22 
xviii. 23-35 
xix. 
xix. 2 . 
xix. 4 . 
xix. 6-9 
xix. 8 . 
xix. 12 . 
xix. 13 . 
xix. 14 . 
xix. 16- 
xix. 17 . 
xix. 17b-20 
xix. 21 
xix. 23, 24 
xix. 27 
xix. 28 
xix. 29 
xix. 30 
xx. 1-15 
xx. 1-16 
xx. 17 . 
xx. 17-34 
xx. 20-23 
xx. 20-28 
xx. 23 . 
xx. 26 . 
xx. 27 . 
xxi. 1-16 
xxi. 12 
xxi. 13 
xxi. 14 
xxi. 17 
xxi. 18-2( 
xxi. 21, 22 
xxi. 22 . 
xxi. 23-32 
xxi. 24, 25 
xxi. 24-27 
xxi. 25 . 
xxi. 26 . 



180, 



, 178 

, 134 
135 
269 
. 330 
, 141 
320 
191 
163 
91 
. 162 
. 174 
. 175 
. 225 
. 199 
172, 175 
. 663 
. 199 
. 662 
. 662 
. 466 
. 161 
. 162 
. 335 
. 136 
. 221 
. 221 
225, 302 
. 242 
. 185 
. 91 
. 224 
. 221 
. 202 
. 221 
. 158 
. 191 
196, 315 
. 191 
. 196 
. 91 
. 292 
. 336 
. 347 
. 192 
. 191 
. 196 
. 162 
. 162 
. 357 
. 126 
. 94 
. 136 
. 370 
. 393 
. 194 
. 266 
111, 370 
. 253 
. 274 
. 105 
108, 111 



TABLE OF BIBLE PASSAGES. 



753 



xxi. 27 . . 


. . 107 


1 xxv. 14-30 


. . . 165 


iii. 10, 11 






. . 136 


xxi. 28 . . 


. 147, 297 


1 xxv. 14-46 


. . . 163 


iii. 13-19 






. . 178 


xxi. 28-31 . 


. . 252 


j xxv. 31 . 


. 110, 315 


iii. 17 . 






. . 181 


*xi. 31, 32 . 


. . 199 


xxv. 31-46 


. . . 167 


Iii. 19 . 






. . 138 


xxi. 32 . 100 


107, 114 


xxvi. 1, 2 


. . . 393 


iii. 19 etc. 






. . 139 


xxi 33 . . 


. 94, 297 


xx vi. 3-5 . 


. . . 382 


iii. 20, 21 






. . 234 


xxi. 33-46 . 


. . 382 


xxvi. 7 


. . . 185 


iii. 21 . 




. 57, 91, 92 


xxi. 41 . . 


. . 444 


xxvi. 6-13 


. 207, 393 


iii. 22 . 




95, 240, 276 


xxi. 44 . • 


. . 390 


xxvi. 13 . 


. . . 293 


iii. 22-30 




. . . 576 


xxi. 46 . . 


. . 374 


xxvi. 14-29 


. . . 407 


iii. 30 . 






. . 240 


xxii. 1-14 


. . 292 


xxvi. 30-56 


. . . 419 


iii. 31-35 






. 92, 234 


xxii. 7 . . 


. 444 


xxvi. 32 . 


. . . 470 


iii. 31f . 






. . 91 


xxii. 13 ff. . 


. . 126 


xxvi. 36 ff 


. . . 261 


iii. 33-35 






57, 191 


xxii. 15-40 . 


. . 370 


xxvi. 41 . 


. . . 264 


iv. 1-20 






. 139 


xxii. 15 ff . . 


. . 198 


xxvi. 45 . 


. 199, 421 


iv. 3-9 . 






. . 153 


xxii. 16 . . 


141, 243 


xxvi. 53 . 


. . . 266 


iv. 10-12 






. 143 


xxii. 17 . . 


. 89 


xxvi. 57-75 


. . . 428 


iv. 12 . 






. 143 


xxii. 28 . . 


475 


xxvi. 61 . 


. . . 328 


iv. 13 . 






. 192 


xxii. 29 . . 


. 225 


xxvi. 64 . 


. . . 315 


iv. 14-20 






. 153 


xxii. 31, 32 . 


. 225 


xxvii. 1 . 


. . 438 


iv. 21 . 






. 164 


xxii. 35 ff . . 


. 300 


xxvii. 1, 2 


. . . 437 


iv. 25 . 






. 146 


xxii. 36 . . 


. 243 


xxvii. 3-10 


. . . 481 


iv. 26-29 






139, 152 


xxii. 40 . . 


. 220 


xxvii. 5 . 


. . 484 


iv. 30-32 






. 152 


xxii. 41, 42 . 


. 261 


xxvii. 7-10 


. . 410 


iv. 30-34 






. 139 


xxii. 41-46 . 3 


B, 84, 382 


xxvii. 9 . 


. . 483 


iv. 33, 84 






. 142 


xxiii. . . . 


. 244 


xxvii. ll-31a 


. . 437 


iv. 35-41 






. 259 


xxiii. 1-7 . . 


. 382 


xxvii. 12 . 


. . 440 


v. 1-20 . 






. 562 


xxiii. 2, 3 


. 225 


xxvii. 14 . 


. . 440 


v. 9. . 






. 186 


xxiii. 5 . . . 


. 250 


xxvii. 31b-61 


. . 447 


v. 22-24 






. 286 


xxiii. 6-12 . . 


. 181 


xxvii. 34 . 


. . 450 


v. 23 . 






. 561 


xxiii. 7 . • 


. 141 


xxvii. 52 . 


. . 475 


v. 25-34 






. 208 


xxiii. 8 . . . 


. 127 


xxvii. 55 . 


185, 336 


v. 35 . . 






. 561 


xxiii. 8-12 . 


163, 393 


xxvii. 62-xx 


riii. . 462 


v. 35-43 






. 286 


xxiii. 10 . . . 


. 127 


xxvii. 63 . 


. . 434 


V. 40^:2 . 






. 561 


xxiii. 13 . . . 


. 382 


xxvii. 64 . . 


. . 475 


vi. 1. . . 






. 40 


xxiii. 15 . . . 


. 586 


xxviii. 7 . 


. . 470 


vi. 1-6 . . 






. 234 


xxiii. 16, 17 . . 


. 355 


xxviii. 19 . 


. . 293 


vi. 2 . . 






. 92 


xxiii. 16-28 . . 


. 382 


xxviii. 20 . . 


. . 466 


vi. 2, 3 . 






. 95 


xxiii. 19 . . . 


. 355 






vi. 3 . 






. 90 


xxiii. 23 . 219, 


221, 250 


MAE 


K. 


vi. 4 




4 


0, 57, 92 


xxiii. 24 . . . 


. 355 


i. 1-4 . . . 


. . 43 


vi. 5 . . 






. 135 


xxiii. 26 . . . 


. 355 


i. 1-8 . 




. . 96 


vi. 7-13 . 






. 178 


xxiii. 29-32 . 


292, 382 


i. 2 . . 




. . 50 


vi. 12 . . 






. 114 


xxiii. 33 . . 


110, 586 


i. 5 . . 




. . 99 


vi. 14-29 . 






. 270 


xxiii. 34 . . . 


. 198 


i. 7, 8 . . 




. . 109 


vi. 17, 18 






. 122 


xxiii. 34-39 . . 


. 393 


i. 9-11 . 




. . 112 


vi. 30-44 






139, 148 


xxiii. 37 . . . 


. 302 


i. 12, 13 




. . 811 


vi. 34 . . 






.175 


xxiv. 1-3 ff . . 


. 393 


i. 14-39 




. . 122 


vi. 39 . . 






. 139 


xxiv. 4 ff . . . 


. 652 


i. 29 . 




. . 181 


vi. 45-52 . 






. 259 


xxiv. 4-41 . . 


. 643 


i. 32-34 




. . 136 


vi. 46 . . 






. 261 


xxiv. 9 . . . 


. 397 


i. 35 . 




. . 261 


vi. 47, 48 . 






. 268 


xxiv. 13 . . . 


. 397 


i. 39 . . 




. 136, 137 


vi. 52 . . 






. 192 


xxiv. 14 . . . 


. 293 


i. 40-ii. 17 




. . 196 


vi. 55, 56 . 






. 136 


xxiv. 24 . . . 


. 204 


ii. 1 . . 




.138, 139 


vi. 56 . . 






. 139 


xxiv. 27 . . . 


. 315 


ii. Iff . 




. . 276 


vii. 1 . . 






. 95 


xxiv. 29, 30 . . 


. 289 


ii. 13 . . 




. . 139 


vii. 1-23 . 






. 270 


xxiv. 30 . . . 


. 315 


ii. 18 . 




107, 108 


vii. 2 . . 






. 276 


xxiv. 32, 33 . . 


. 290 


ii. 18-iii. 6 




. . 211 


vii. 4 . . 






. 104 


xxiv. 42 . . . 


. 268 


ii. 19 . . 




. . 193 


vii. 5 . . 






. 276 


xxiv. 42-51 . . 


. 393 


ii. 27 . 




. . 221 


vii. 17 . . 






. 138 


xxv. 1-13 . . . 


. 393 


iii. 6 . . 




242, 270 


vii. 17, 18 . 






. 192 


xxv. 13 . . . 


. 268 


iii. 7 . . 




. . 282 


vii. 24 . . 






. 281 



32* 



754 



TABLE OF BIBLE PASSAGES. 



vii. 24-30 . 

vii. 31-37 . 

viii. 1-9 . 

viii. 11 . . 

viii. 11-13 . 

viii. 13-21 . 

viii. 15 . . 

viii. 22-26 . 

viii 27-30 . 

viii. 28 . . 

viii. 31 ; ix. 

viii. 32, 33 

viii. 35 . . 

viii. 36, 37 

ix. 1 . . 

ix 2-10 . 

ix. 4 . . 

ix. 6 . . 

ix. 7 . . 

ix. 10 . . 

ix. 11 . . 

ix. 11-13 . 

ix. 12 . . 

ix. 12, 13 . 

ix. 14-29 . 

ix. 17, 18 . 
18, 28 . 
30, 31 . 

ix. 30-32 . 

ix. 32 . . 

ix. 33a . . 
ix. 34 . . 
ix. 35 . . 
ix. 36 . . 
ix. 37 . . 
ix. 38-40 . 
ix. 40 . . 
ix. 41 . . 
ix. 42-47 . 
ix. 50 . . 
x. 1-31 . 
x. 12 . . 
x. 13-16 . 
x. 17, 18 . 
x. 24 . . 
x. 28 . . 
x. 29, 30 . 
x. 31, 40 . 
x. 32-52 . 
x. 35-40 . 
x. 35-45 . 
x. 38 . . 
x. 43, 44 . 
xi. 1-11 . 
xi. 12-14 . 
xi. 15-18 . 
xi. 19 . . 
xi. 20, 21 . 
xi. 22-24 . 
xi. 24 . . 
xi. 25, 26 . 
*i. 27-33 . 



. 502 

. 209 

139,149 

. 242 

. 284 

. 149 

242. 281 

. '209 

. 311 

. 50 

. 325 

. 192 

. 190 

. 177 

. 315 

. 502 

. 50 

. 192 

. 120 

. 192 

. 50 

. 325 

. 50 

. 51 

. 178 

. 134 

. 135 

. 335 

. 330 

. 192 

. 335 

. 191 

. 162 

. 91 

. 174 

. 576 

. 583 

167, 393 

. 175 

. 164 

. 335 

. 339 

. 91 

. 116 

. 344 

. 191 

. 191 

. 196 

. 347 

. 192 

. 191 

. 192 

. 162 

. 357 

. 393 

. 357 

. 370 

. 393 

. 194 

. 266 

161, 264 

111,370 I 



xi. 30 . 
xi. 32 . 
xi. 33 . 
xii. 1 . 
xii. 1-12 
xii. 13-34a 
xii. 14 . 
xii. 28 ff 
xii. 34b-40 
xii. 35-37 . 
xii. 37 . 
xii. 41-44 
xiii. 1-4 ff 
xiii. 3 . 
xiii. 5 ff 
xiii. 9-13 
xiii 26 . 
xiii. 33-37 
xiii. 35 . 
xiv. 1, 2 
xiv. 3-9 
xiv. 10-25 
xiv. 26-52 
xiv. 28 . 
xiv. 32 ff 
xiv. 38 . 
xiv. 41 . 
xiv. 53-72 
xiv. 62 . 

XV. 1 . 

xv. l-20a 
xv. 20b-47 
xv. 25 . 
xv. 40, 41 
xv. 41 . 
xv. 43 . 
xvi. 

xvi. 7 . 
xvi. 9-20 
xvi. 11 . 
xvi. 13 . 
xvi. 13 b 
xvi. 14 . 
xvi. 15 . 
xvi. 17, 18 



LUKE, 



.1-4 

. 5-25 
. 15. 



26-56 
28. 



38, 



.42. 

.45. 
. 46-55 
. 57-80 
. 68-79 
.80. , 
i. 1-5 . 



. 105 

108,111 

. 107 

. 297 

. 382 

. 370 

. 89 

. 300 

. 382 

. 38 

. 400 

. 393 

. 393 

. 181 

643, 652 

. 393 

. 315 

. 393 

. 268 

. 382 

207, 393 

. 407 

. 419 

. 470 

. 261 

. 264 

. 421 

. 428 

. 315 

. 438 

. 437 

. 447 

. 447 

. 185 

. 185 

. 429 

. 462 

469,470 

. 471 

. 471 

. 471 

. 465 

. 471 

. 293 

. 194 



158 
42 

117 
51 
92 
92 
60 
92 
92 
92 
92 
42 

102 
83 
55 



ii. 1-20 . 
ii. 6 . . 
ii. 14 . 
ii. 19, . 
ii. 21, 22, 
ii. 21-39 
ii. 27 . 
ii. 39 . 
ii. 40 . 
ii. 40-52 
ii. 41 . 
ii. 41-48 
ii. 43 . 
ii. 48-51 
ii. 50 . 
ii 51 . . 
iii. 1-18 
iii. 7-9 . 
iii. 9 . 
iii. 15, 16 
iii. 15-18 
iii. 17 . 
iii. 19, 20 
iii. 21 . 
iii. 21, 22 
iii. 23 . 
iii. 23-38 
iv. 1-13 
iv. 14, 15 
iv. 16 . 
iv. 16, 17 
iv. 16-30 
iv. 18, 19 
iv. 18-21 
iv. 22 . 
iv. 23 . 
iv. 23, 24 
iv. 24 . 
iv. 25, 26 
iv. 25-27 
iv. 31 . 
iv. 31-v. 11 
iv. 40, 41 
iv. 44 . 
v. 1. . 
v. 12-32 
v. 15 . 
v. 16 . 
v. 17 . 
v. 33 . 
v. 33-vi. 11 
v. 34 . 
vi. 4. . 
vi. 12-16 
vi. 13 . 
vi. 17 . 
vi. 17-19 
vi. 20-26 
vi. 24 . 
vi. 27-36 
vi. 32-34 
vi. 37, 38 



23, 



24 



51 

55 

361 

92 

60 

59 

56 

55,60 

83 

79 

60 

56 

92 

92 

57 

92 

96 

102 

160 

109 

109 

102 

122 

118, 261 

112 

56, 126 

35 

311 

122 

93 

93 

234 

120 

210 

56 

236 

40 

92 

49 

302 

236 

122 

136 

137 

139 

196 

136 

261 

136, 276 

107, 108 

. 211 

. 193 

. 218 

• 178 

• 180 

• 142 
. 136 
. 155 
. 388 
. 219 

198, 199 
. 161 



TABLE OF BIBLE PASSAGES. 



755 



. 161 


. 160 


. 159 


139, 154 


. 292 


. 561 


. 309 


. 309 


. 309 


. 287 


. 253 


. Ill 


. 136 


. 108 


108,256 


. 241 


. 91 


. 108 


199, 201 


. 139 


. 196 


. 147 


. 207 


. 147 


. 207 


178, 185 


. 139 


. 153 


. 143 


. 153 


. 164 


. 146 


. 91 


92, 234 


. 191 


. 259 


. 562 


. 286 


. 208 


. 286 


. 178 


. 270 


139, 148 


. 136 


. 311 


. 50 


. 325 


. 190 


. 177 


. 315 


. 502 


. 50 


. 120 


. 178 


. 134 


. 135 


. 330 


. 191 


. 174 


. 576 


309 


. 178; 



ix. 51-xvi 


i. 


14 


. . 310 


xiii. 1-5 . . 


. . 220 


ix. 56, 57 




. . 309 


xiii. 1-9 . . 


. . 347 


x. 1 . 






. . 309 


xiii. 7-9 . . 


. . 114 


x. Iff . 






. . 534 


xiii. 10 . . . 


. . 310 


x. 2. . 






. . 177 


xiii. 10-17 . 


. . 217 


x. 3. . 






. . 393 


xiii. 18-21 . 


.139, 152 


x. 10 . 






. . 139 


xiii. 22. . . 


. . 309 


x. 12-15 






. . 253 


xiii. 22-25 . 


. . 335 


x. 17-20 






. . 534 


xiii. 24. . . 


. . 160 


x. 19 . 






. . 472 


xiii. 26 . . 


. . 139 


x. 21 . 






. . 191 


xiii. 26, 27 . 


. . 586 


x. 22 . 






. . 196 


xiii. 28 . . . 


. . 301 


x. 23, 24 






64, 163 


xiii. 28-30 . 


. . 292 


x. 25 






. . 310 


xiii. 29 . . . 


. . 302 


x. 25, 26 






. . 300 


xiii. 30 . . . 


. . 297 


x. 25-37 






. . 292 


xiii. 31 . . 122, 


243, 310 


x. 29-37 






. . 230 


xiii. 31-33 . 


. 270 


x. 36 et se< 


?• 




. . 147 


xiii. 34, 35 . 


. . 393 


x. 38 . 






. . 309 


xiv. 1 . .241 


243, 310 


x. 38&c 






. . 139 


xiv. l&c. . . 


. . 139 


x. 38-42 




. . 186 


xiv. 1-6 . . 


. 217 


xi. 1 . 108, 1 


14 


139, 180 


xiv. 7-15 . . 


. 241 


xi. 1-13 . 




. . 259 


xiv. 13 . . . 


. 305 


xi. 11-13 






. . 91 


xiv. 15-24 . 


. 292 


xi. 14, 15 






. . 576 


xiv. 21 . . . 


. 245, 305 


xi. 16 . 






. . 284 


xiv. 25 . . . 


. 309 


xi. 17-23 






. 576 


xiv. 25-35 . 


. 178 


xi. 24-26 






135, 347 


xiv. 34, 35 . 


. 164 


xi. 27 . 






. . 185 


xv. 1, 2 . . 


201, 241 


xi. 27, 28 






. 92, 241 


xv. 2 . . . 


. 310 


xi. 29 . . 






. 284 


xv. 3-7 . . 


. 175 


xi. 29-32 






. 292 


xv. 7 . . . 


, 198 


xi. 33 . 






. 164 


xv. 8, 9 . . 


. 91 


xi. 34-36 






. 159 


xv. 8-10 . . 


. 196 


xi. 37 . 






. 310 


xv. 11-32 . . 


. 241 


xi. 37 ff 






. 244 


xvi. 1-9 . . 


. 393 


xi. 38 . 






. 243 


xvi. 9 . . . 


. 388 


xi. 39-46 






. 382 


xvi. 10 . . . 


. 164 


xi. 41 . 






356, 388 


xvi. 11 . . . 


. 388 


xi. 45 . 






. 310 


xvi. 11, 12 . 


. 393 


xi. 47 . 






. 382 


xvi. 13 . . 


. 169 


xi. 48 . . 






. 382 


xvi. 14 . . 


310, 393 


xi. 49 . . 






. 399 


xvi. 15 . . . 


. 281 


xi. 49-51 






. 393 


xvi. 16 . . . 


. 220 


xi. 52 . 






. 382 


xvi. 17 . . . 


. 586 


xi. 53 . . 






. 310 


xvi. 18 . . 


. 339 


xii. 1 . 178 


, 2 


23, 


242. 281 


xvi. 19-31 . . 


. 382 


xii. 2, 3 






. ' 190 


xvi. 29 . . 


. 220 


xii. 4-7 . 






. 170 


xvi. 31 . . 


. 220 


xii. 8, 9 . 






. 190 


xvii. 1, 2 . . . 


. 175 


xii. 10 . . 






. 576 


xvii. 3, 4 . . . 


. 161 


xii. 15-21 . 






. 160 


xvii. 5, 6 . . . 


. 194 


xii. 22-31 . 






. 169 


xvii. 7-10. . . 


. 231 


xii. 13, 14 






. 258 


xvii. 11 . . . 


. 309 


xii. 33, 34 






. 168 xvii. 11-19 . . 


. 292 


xii. 35-40 . 






. 403 xvii. 20 . . . 


243, 310 


xii. 35-48 . 






. 393 I xvii. 20, 21 . . 


. 284 


xii. 47, 48 






. 403 ! xvii. 22 ff . 393 


, 643, 652 


xii. 49-53 . 






. 347 j xvii. 24 . . . 


. 315 


xii. 54-56 - 






. 284 xvii. 33 . . . 


. 190 


xii. 57-59 . 






. 347 xviii. 1-8 . . . 


643, 656 


xiii. 1 . 






. 96 


xviii. 9-14 . . 


. 241 



756 



TABLE OE BIBLE PASSAGES. 



xviii. 11 . 
xviii. 11, 12 
xviii. 12 . 
xviii. 15-17 
xviii. 15-30 
xviii. 18 . 
xviii. 18, 19 
xviii. 20a . 
xviii. 28 . 
xviii. 29, 30 
xviii. 31-43 
xix. 1-10 . 
xix. 8 . . 
xix. 10 . . 
xix. 11 . . 
xix. 12-37 
xix. 27. . 
xix. 28-40 
xix. 37 . . 
xix. 41-44 
xix. 45-48 
xix. 47, 48 
xx. 1-8 
xx. 4 . 
xx. 6 . 
xx. 7 . 
xx. 9 . ' 
xx. 9-19 
xx. 20-39 
xx. 22 . 
xx. 34-38 
xx. 40-46 
xx. 47 . 
xxi. 1-4 
xxi. 5-7 ff 
xxi. 8 ff 
xxi. 12-19 
xxi. 20, 24 
xxi. 24 
xxi. 27 
xxi. 37 
xxi. 37, 38 
xxii. 1, 2 . 
xxii. 3-30 
xxii. 24-27 
xxii. 25-27 
xxii. 28 . 
xxii. 28-30 
xxii. 30 . 
xxii. 31, 32 
xxii. 31-53 
xxii. 32 . 
xxii. 35 . 
xxii. 39, 40 
xxii. 46 . 
xxii. 54-71 
xxii. 64 . 
xxii. 67, 68 
xxii. 69 . 
xxiii. 1-25 
xxiii. 2 
xxiii 5 



199 



180 



. 199 

. 108 

. 140 

. 91 

. 335 

. 300 

. 116 

. 300 

. 191 

. 191 

. 347 

. 347 

203, 356 

. 199 

. 358 

. 358 

. 304 

. 357 

. 336 

357, 400 

. 357 

. 370 

111, 370 

. 105 

108,111 

. 107 

. 297 

. 382 

. 370 

. 89 

. 380 

. 382 

. 382 

. 393 

. 393 

643, 652 

. 393 

. 652 

. 191 

. 315 

. 370 

. 370 

. 382 

. 407 

. 414 

. 352 

. 191 

. 414 

196, 346 

. 469 

. 419 

. 269 

. 184 

. 370 

. 264 

. 428 

. 429 

. 432 

315, 510 

. 437 

. 434 

. 434 



XX1U. 

xxiii. 
xxiii. 
xxiii. 
xxiii. 
xxiii. 
xxiii. 
xxiii. 
xxiv. 
xxiv. 
xxiv. 
xxiv. 
xxiv. 
xxiv. 
xxiv. 
xxiv. 
xxiv. 
xxiv. 
xxiv. 
xxiv. 
xxiv. 



25 . 
26-56 
27 . 
34 . 
36 . 

46 . 
49 . 
53 . 
1-12 

11 . 

12 . 
13-53 
24 . 
27 . 
30, 
34 
37 
41 
41 et seq. 
44 et sea*. 

47 . . 



31 



JOHN 
John . 

. 1-5 . 

. 10-12 

. 14 . 

. 16-18 

.21 . 

. 45, 46 

.46 . 

i. 1-11 

ii. 3 . 

ii. 5 . 

ii. 6 . 

ii. 19-21 

v. 22 . 

v. 23, 24 

v. 44 . 

v. 48 . 
v. 1-15 
v. 1-17 
v. 6 . 
v. 28, 29 
vi. 1-14 
vi. 14 . 
vi. 42 . 
vii. 15 . 
vii. 16, 17 
vii. 27 . 
vii. 30 . 
vii. 41, 42 
vii. 42 . 
vii. 49 . 
vii. 53-viii 
viii. 1 
viii. 12 
viii. 20 
viii. 29 
viii. 57 
ix. . 
ix. 5 



11 



. 447 
. 447 
. 185 

261, 510 
. 454 

261,510 

185, 336 
. 361 
. 462 
. 471 
. 465 
. 462 
. 465 
. 220 
. 418 
. 465 

465, 471 
. 471 
. 465 
. 220 
. 293 



. 669 

. 672 

. 670 

. 670 

. 50 

. 40 

. 56 

. 232 

. 41 

. 41 

. 41 

. 65 

. 306 

. 693 

. 92 

. 287 

. 204 

. 218 

. 203 

464, 475 

. 148 

. 255 

. 56 

. 97 

. 176 

. 118 

. 75 

. 40 
38, 39 

. 199 

. 370 

370-376 

. 66 

. 75 

. 44g 

. 126 

218, 355 

. 66 



ix. aa . 
x. 30 . 
x. 41 . 

xi. . . 
xii. 1-8 
xii. 42 . 
xiii. 23 
xiv.-xvii 
xiv. 12 
xvi. 2 
xvi. 12-15 
xvi. 32 
xviii. 15 
xix. 26 
xix. 28, 29 
xix. 41 
xx. 2, 3 
xx. 2-6 
xx. 8 . 
xx. 22 . 
xx. 27 . 
xxi. 1-14 
xxi. 15-17 
xxi. 18, 19 
xxi. 23 . 



ACTS 



i. 3-14 



i. 13, 14 

i. 14 . 

i. 15-v. 

i. 18, 19 

i. 18-20 

i. 22 . 

ii. 2-4 . 

ii. 4 . . 

ii. 19, 20 

ii. 23 . 

ii. 27 . 

ii. 30 . 

ii. 36 . 

ii. 38 . 

ii. 42 ff. 

iii. 20, 21 et seq. 

iii. 22 ff. 

iv. 1 . 

iv. 1 ff. 

iv. 6 . 

iv. 23 . 

iv. 27 . 

iv. 27, 21 

iv. 32 ff. 

v. 16 . 

v. 17 . 

v. 34 ff. 

v. 37 . 

vi.-viii. 

vi. 1 . 

vi. 5 . 

vi. 8 . 

vi. 10 . 



198 
671 
111 
287 
207 
198 
668 
685 
691 
198 
692 
446 
668 
668 
454 
361 
668 
469 
668 
487 
471 
129 
469 
641 
332 



462 

55 

91 

57 

481 

484 

484 

43 

119 

472 



. 65 

. 466 

. 38 
359, 471 

. 472 

. 492 

. 359 

. 363 

. 430 



. 430 
. 388 

120, 445 
. 65 
. 492 
. 472 

388, 430 
. 430 



502 
492 
511 
511 
511 



TABLE OF BIBLE PASSAGES. 



757 



ri.ll . . . 


. 434 


vi. 13 . . . 


. 434 


vi. 14 . . . 


405, 434 


vi. 15 . . . 


. 511 


vii. 2 . . . 


. 509 


vii. 6 . . . 


. 509 


vii. 16 . . 


. 509 


vii. 29 et seq. 


. 509 


vii. 45 . . . 


. 60 


vii. 56 . . . 


315, 510 


vii. 58 . . . 


. 438 


vii, 59 . . . 


. 510 


vii. 60 . . . 


. 453, 510 


viii. 1 . . . 


. 510 


viii. 7 . . . 


. 472 


viii. 9-25 . . 


. 611 


viii. 15-17 . 


. 589 


viii. 15 ff. . . 


. 487 


viii. 16 . . 


. 472 


viii. 17 . . 


. 119 


viii. 18 ff. . 


. 540 


viii. 26-40 . 


. 502 


viii. 39 et seq. 


. 119 


ix. 1-30 . . 


. 519 


ix. Iff. . . 


. 522 


ix. 7 ... 


. . 468 


ix. 26 ff. . . 


. 510 


ix. 28 . . . 


. 533 


ix. 31-xi. 18. 


• 557 


ix. 32 ff. . . 


. 544 


ix. 37-41 . . 


. 561 


x 


. 472 


x. 1, 2 . . . 


. 561 


x. 4 ... 


. 561 


x. 9 ff. . . 


. 129 


x. 10 . . . 


. 469 


x. 10, 11 . . 


. 468 


x. 17 . . . 


. 468 


x. 19 . . . 


. 468 


x. 22 . . . 


. 561 


x. 25, 26 . . 


. 540 


x. 28 . . . 


. 560 


x. 35 . . . 


. 560 


x. 37 . . . 


. 43 


x. 38 . . . 


. 118 


x. 44 ff . . 


. 487 


x. 45 . . . 


. 560 


x. 46, . . . 


. 472 


x. 48 . . . 


. 472 


XI 


. 472 


xi. 1 ... 


. 560 


xi. 2 ... 


. 492 


xi. 3, 17 . . 


. 560 


xi. 17 . . . 


. 560 


xi. 18 . . . 


. 560 


xi. 19-21 . . 


. 502 


xi. 19 ff. . . . 


. 510 


xi. 22-30 . . 


. 534 


xi. 30 . . . . 


. 512 


xii. 1-23 . . . 


. 481 


xii. 12 . . . . 


. 492 


xii. 24-xiv. . . 


. 534 



xiii. 15 . . 


. 93 


xiii. 23 . . 


. 38 


xiii. 24, 25 . 


. . 109 


xiii. 34, 35 . 


. . 466 


xiii. 46 ff. 


. . 541 


XV. . . . 


. . 544 


XV. 1 . . . 


. 308 


xv. 1, 5, 6 et seq 


. 561 


xv. 5, 6 et seq. 


. . 561 


xv. 10-19 


. . 281 


xv. 21. . . . 


. . 93 


xv. 23 . . . 


541, 547 


xv. 30, 31 . 


. 556 


xv. 37 ff. . . 


. 512 


xv. 41 . . . 


. . 541 


xvi.-xviii. 18 


. 562 


xvi. 1, 2 . . 


. 539 


xvi. 3 . . . 


. 555 


xvi. 4 . . . 


. . 556 


xvi. 10-17 . 


. 563 


xvi. 18 . . 


. 472 


xvii. 2 . . . 


. 541 


xviii. 3 . . 


. 90 


xviii. 6 . . 


. 541 


xviii. 14-16 . 


. . 438 


xviii. 18 . . 


. 571 


xviii. 18-23 . 


.. 576 


xviii. 21, 22 . 


. 562 


xviii. 24-28 . 


. 595 


xviii. 26 . . 


. 571 


xviii. 27 . . . 


. 589 


xix. 1-20 . . . 


. 576 


xix. Iff... 


. 487 


xix. 5 . . . 


. 472 


xix. 6 . . . 


. 472 


xix. 9 . . . . 


. 589 


xix. 13-16 . . 


. 135 


xix. 21, 22 . 


. 595 


xix. 23-41 . 


. 576 


xx. 1-6 . . 


. 595 


xx. 4 . . . 


539, 609 


xx. 5-15 . . . 


. 563 


xx. 7-xxiii. . 


. 611 


xx. 16-38 . . . 


. 612 


xx. 19 . . . 


592, 619 


xxi. 1-18 . . 


. 563 


xxi. 8 . . . . 


. 512 


xxi. 18 . . . 


57, 91 


xxi. 20 . . . 


. 488 


xxi. 21 . . . 


. 511 


xxi. 21, 24 . . 


. 556 


xxi. 22 . . . 


. 615 


xxi. 25 . . . 


. 556 


xxi. 28 . . . 


. 511 


xxii. 3 ff. . . . 


. 522 


xxii. 17-21 . . 


. 533 


xxiii. 8 . . . 


. 378 


xxiii. 29 . . . 


. 438 


xxiii. 33 . . . 


. 398 


xxjv.-xxvm. 


. 624 


xxiv. 17 . . . 


. 617 


xxiv. 23 . . . 


. 625 



xxiv. 26, 27 . 

xxv. 6 . . 

xxv. 16 . . 

xxv. 23 . . 

xxvi. 8. . . 
xxvi. 9 ff. 

xxvi. 18 . . 

xxvi. 20 . . 
xxvii. 1-xxviii 

xxviii. 5 . . 

xxviii. 8 . . 

xxviii. 16 . . 

xxviii. 26 ff . 



. 624 

. 398 

. 439 

. 398 

. 629 



16 



RO 

Romans 
i.2,3 . 
i, 5, 6 . 
i. 10-15 
i. 13-15 
i. 14. . 
i. 16. . 
i. 16, 17 
ii. 15 . 
ii. 16 . 
ii. 19 . 
iii. 1 ff. 
iii. 9 ff. 
iii. 21 ff. e 
v. 8. . 
v. 12 ff. 
vi. 3 . 
vi. 4 ff. 
vi. 17 . 
vii. 1-6. 
vii. 1 ff. 
viii. 1 ff. 
viii. 3 . 
viii. 18 ff. 
ix. 2, 3 . 
x. 4. . 
x. 11 ff. 
xi. 1 . 
xi. 13 ff. 
xi. 15 ff. . 
xiii. 11 ff. 
xiv. . . . 
xiv. 2 . 
xiv. 10 . 
xiv. 23 . 
xv. 3 . . 
xv. 8 . . 
xv. 8 ff. . 
xv. 19 . . 
xv. 24, 28 . 
xvi. 1, 2 . 
xvi. 3, 4 . 
xvi. 13 . . 
xvi 22 . 
xvi. 23 . . 
xvi. 25. . 
xvi. 25-27. 


Mi 
t st 


9- 


s. 

191 
571 



518 
533 
563 
472 

472 
635 
541 



595 
38 
606 
605 
606 
541 
306 
607 
221 
529 
587 
396 
197 
511 
197 
531 
472 
531 
606 
583 
616 
531 
531 
651 
528 
616 
549 
520 
606 
306 
404 
583 
545 
110 
609 
232 
232 
549 
579 
605 
572 
571 
448 
521 
572 
529 
(09 



7J»8 



TABLE OF BIBLE PASSAGES. 



1 CORINTHIANS. 


xiii. 2 . . . 


. . 194 


viii. 9 . 


. . 531 


1 Corinthians . . 595 


xiv 


. . 598 


ix. 12 ff. . . 


. . 602 


i. 2 . . . . 


. . 572 


xiv. 16 . . 


140, 263 


x. 7 ... 


. 586, 597 


i. 5 . 








. . 596 


XV. Iff... 


. . 599 


x. 10 . . . 


. . 528 


i. 7 . 








. . 596 


xv. 3 . . . 


. . 525 


xi. 4 ... 


. 529, 604 


i. 11 








. . 599 


xv. 3-8 . . 


. . 462 


xi. 4, 5 . . 


. . 618 


i. 12 






503 


, 586, 597 


xv. 4 . . . 


. . 468 


xi. 8, 9 . . 


. . 572 


i. 13 








. . 472 


xv. 5 . . . 


. . 485 


xi. 13-15 . . 


. . 584 


i. 14 








. . 571 


xv. 6 . . . 


. . 393 


xi. 21 ff. . . 


. 530 


i. 15 








. . 572 


xv. 8 . . . 


. . 524 


xi. 22 . . . 


. 520, 597 


i. 16 








. . 571 


xv. 12-19 . . 


. . 468 


xi. 23-29 . . 


. 576 


i. 17 








. . 472 


xv. 21 ff. . . 


. . 531 


xi. 24 . . . 


. 198 


i. 18 . . 






. 525 


xv. 23-28 . . 


. . 651 


xi. 25 . . . 


. 567 


i. 22, 23 






. . 285 


xv. 24 . . . 


. . 692 


xi. 26 . . . 


. 592 


L 23, 24 






. . 525 


xv. 28 . . . 


. . 692 


xi. 29 . . . 


. 528 


i. 26-28 






. . 572 


xv. 29 . . . 


. . 596 


xi. 32, 33 . . 


. 532 


li. 2 . . 






. . 525 


xv. 30-32 . . 


. . 593 


xii. 1 . . . 


. 524 


ii. 3, 4 








. . 571 


xv. 32 . . . 


. . 642 


xii. Iff... 


. 528 


ii. 4. 








. . 597 


xv. 42-54 . . 


. . 467 


xii. 1-4 . . 


. 468 


ii. 10 








. . 647 


xv. 45, 47 . 


. . 39 


xii. 2, 3 . . 


. 119 


iii. 4 








. 597 


xv. 45 ff. . . 


. . 531 


xii. 3 . . . 


. 468 


iii. 18 








. 596 


xv. 47 . . . 


. . 531 


xii. 10 ... . 


. 578 


iiii. 22 








. 597 


xv. 50 . . . 


. . 464 


xii. 11 . . . 


. 618 


iv. 3 








. 596 


xv. 50-54 . . 


. . 651 


xii. 14 . 


579, 595 


iv. 7ff 








. 596 


xvi. 1, 2 . . 


. . 602 


xii. 21 .... 


. 595 


iv. 11-1 


3 ! 






. 578 


xvi. 3, 4 . . 


. . 601 


xiii. 1 . . . . 


. 579 


iv. 17 








534, 599 


xvi. 4 . . . 


. . 614 


xiii. 1, 2 . . . 


. 595 


iv. 18 . 








. 596 


xvi. 5-9 . . 


. 595, 601 


xiii. 8 . . . . 


. 605 


v. Iff 








. 595 


xvi. 8 . . . 


. . 609 






v. 7. . 








130, 684 


xvi. 9 . . . 


591, 619 


GALATIANS 


v. 7, 8 








. 601 


xvi. 10-12 . 


. . 599 


Galatians . . . 


. 576 


v. 9-13 . 








. 595 


xvi. 15 . . . 


. . 571 


i.6 


529. 580 


v. 11 . 








. 201 


xvi. 17 . . . 


. 571, 599 


i. 11, 12 . . . 


. 529 


vi. 1 ff 








. 598 
. 572 


xvi. 19 571, 57< 
xvi. 21 . . . 


) 589 590 


i. 12 .... 


. 522 


vi 9-11 . 






'. . ' 521 


i. 13 .... 


. 511 


vii .Iff . 






. 599 






i. 13, 14 . . . 


520, 530 


vii. 12 ff 






. 647 


2 CORINTt 


[IANS. 


i. 13-20 . . . 


. 519 


vii. 18 . . 






. 598 


2 Corinthians 


. . 595 


i. 15-17 . . . 


. 522 


viii. 1 ff . 






. 599 


i. 1 . . 


. . 572 


i. 16 .... 


532, 541 


ix. 1 . . 






. 524 


i. 8, 9 . . . 


. . 577 


i. 16, 17 . . . 


. 530 


ixlff . 






597, 618 
. 591 


i. 8-10 . . . 
i. 15, 16 . . 


. 593 


i. 19 .... 


91 


ix. 4-18 .' 






. . 602 


i. 21-24 . . . 


. 534 


ix. 5 . . 






91, 112 


i. 22 ... 


. . 531 


ii 


. 544 


ix. 6 . . 






. 557 


ii. 1 . . . . 


. . 595 


ii. 1 


534, 557 


ix. 6-15 . 






. 613 


ii. 2 ff. . . 


. . 602 


ii. 2 . . . 528, 


529, 541 


ix. 6 ff. . 






. 183 


ii. 4 . . . . 


. . 577 


ii. 2, 7, 8 


. 534 


ix. 14 . . 






. 183 


i. 12, 13 . . 


. . 603 


ii. 3 


. 534 


ix. 18 . . 






. 183 


ii. 13 et seq. . 


. . 534 


ii. 7 . . 503, 529, 


541, 585 


x. 16 . . 
x. 16 ff. . 
x. 20 . . 






. 417 

. 417 

543, 575 


iii. &c. . . 
iii. 1 . . . 
iv. 3 ... 


. . 74 


ii. 7, 8 . . . . 


. 544 






. . 597 


ii. 7-9 ... . 


. 472 






. . 529 


ii. 8 .... 


. 541 


x. 27 . . . 




. 542 


iv. 4 ... 


. . 543 


ii. 9 503, 541, 


557, 585 


xi. 2 ff. 




. 598 


iv. 8, 9 . . 


. . 578 


ii. 9, 12 ... 


. 57 


xi. 17 ff. . . 




. 598 


iv. 16 ff . et seq. 


. . 577 


ii. 9-12 . . . 


. 91 


xi. 20 . . . 




. 417 


iv. 18 . . . 


. . 171 


ii. 11 . . . . 


. 534 


xi.20ff. . . 




. 417 


v. 1-4 . . . 


. . 487 


ii. 12 . . 201, 


303, 542 


xii.-xiv. . . 




. 487 


v. 1 ff. . . . 


. . 651 


ii. 12, 13 . . . 


. 536 


xii. 1 ff. 




598. 599 


v. 10 . . . 


. . 110 


ii. 13 . . . 


517. 534 


xii. 2 . . . 




571, 587 


v. 13 . . . 


. . 240 


ii. 13, 14 . . . 


. ' 512 


x i. 4-11 . . 




. 596 


v. 14 ff. . . 


. . 531 


ii. 15 . . . . 


. 199 


xii. 28 . . . 




. 596 vii. 2-16 . . 


. . 603 


ii. 15-21 . . . 


. 583 


xii. 3.1-: 


viv 


. 1 


a. 


. 600 | 


vii. 8 ff. . . 


. . 602 i 


ii. 16 . . . 


536, 616 






TABLE OF BIBLE PASSAGES. 



759 



11. 19 20 . . . 531 

ii. 21 525 

iii. 1 580 

iii. Iff 564 

iii- 2 585 

iii. 5 et seq. . . . 585 

iii- 27 472 

iii- 28 541 

iv. 4 . . 59, 232, 531 

iv. 9, 10 ... . 580 

iv. 13 563 

iv. 14, 15 . . . . 564 

iv. 18 564 

v. 1 ff 580 

v. 2-6 583 

v. 3 598 

v. 5 531 

v. 7 564 

vi. 6 .... 591, 613 

vi. 11 . . . . 521 

vi. 9, 10 ... . 564 

vi. 13 598 

vi. 14 531 

vi. 14 et seq. . . 525 

vi- 17 578 



1 THESSALONIANS. 

i- 6 567 

i- 7-9 567 

i- 10 567 

ii- 2 567 

ii. 13, 14 . . . . 567 

ii- 14 567 

ii. 15 ff 567 

ii. 17, 18 . . . . 568 

iii. 1, 2 .... 568 

iii. 3, 4 . . . . 567 

iii. 11 568 

v. 2, 6 . ... 574 

2 THESSALONIANS. 
2 Thessalonians . 643 

ii- 1 ff 332 

ii- 2 23, 651 



x. 19 ff. 
xi. 1 ff . 
xiii. 12. 
xiii. 23. 



456 
171 
449 
642 



EPHESIANS. 
Ephesians . . . 

ii. 2 

ii. 11, 12 . . . . 

ii. 19 

iv. 4-6 .... 

iv. 13 

v. 1 



PHILIPPIANS. 
Philippians . . . 

i. 5 

i. 23 

ii. 5 ff 

ii. 10 

ii. 12 ... 

ii. 15 

ii. 24 

ii. 25 

iii. 2 

iii. 4ff 

iii. 4-6 .... 



iii. 20, 21 et seq. 
iii. 21 . . 
iv. 2, 3 . . . 
iv 14-16 . . . 



COLOSSIANS. 
Colossians 

i. 7 

ii. 20-22 .... 

iv. 10 

iv. 12, 13 . . . . 
iv. 14 



643 
543 
297 
297 
660 
660 
159 



624 
565 
510 
531 
75 
565 
640 
613 
565 
584 
530 
520 
651 
467 
565 
565 



643 
591 
281 
535 
591 
562 



1 TIMOTHY. 

1 Timothy . 

2 TIMOTHY. 

2 Timothy . . . 

i. 1, 2 

i. 5 

i. 15-18 . . . . 

ii. 8 

iv. 9-18 .... 

iv. 10 

iv. 17 

iv. 19 

Titus 
i. 5 . 
iii. 5 



TITUS. 



643 



643 
637 
539 
637 
38 
637 
642 
642 
571 



643 
642 
41 



JAMES. 

James 643 

i- 1 180 

i- 5, 6 266 

v. 8, 9 et seq. . . 434 

v. 12 227 

v. 17, 18 . . . . 49 



2 PETER. 

1 Peter 
i. 2 . . 
ii. 23 . 
v. 1-4 . 
v. 12, 13 



PHILEMON. 
Philemon .... 624 

9 522 

19 .... . 521, 637 
22 613 



2 PETER. 
2 Peter .... 
i. 14 .... 
i. 16b-18 . . . 
i. 17 .... 
ii. 22 . . . . 
iii. 15, 16 . . . 

1 JOHN. 
1 John . . 
i. 5-7a . . 
ii. 20-27 . 
iii. la, 2b, 3 
iii. 14 . . 
iv. 7, 8 . . 
iv. 16b . . 
v. 3 . . . 



HEBREWS 
Hebrews 
ii. 10 . 



ii. 17 . 
ii. 18 . 
iii. 1-6 . 
iv. 8 . 
iv. 15 . 
v. 2 . . 
v. 7. . 
v. 7-9 . 
v. 7-10. 
v. 8, 9 . 
vii. 14 . 
viii. 

xi. . . 
ix. 7 ff . 
ix. 18 ff 



116 



. . . 643 
116, 424, 455 

. 424 

. 116 

. 74 

. 60 
324, 424 

. 424 

. 454 

. 116 

. 424 

. 455 

. 38 

. 74 

. 74 

. 456 

. 416 



2 John 



2 JOHN. 



3 John 



Jude 



3 JOHN. 



JUDE. 



REVELATION. 
Revelation . . . 

i. 4 

i. 11 

i. 13 

i. 13-16 etc. . . . 

ii 

ii. 2. . . .584, 

ii. 2-6 

ii. 3 

ii.9. 
ii.10 
ii. 13 
ii. 14 
ii. 15 
ii. 17 



584, 587, 
'. '. 587, 



643 
416 
433 
664 
642 



643 
641 
503 
120 
518 
661 



643 
693 
118 
693 
693 
693 
693 



643 
643 
643 



643 
590 
590 
315 
130 

59 
587 
592 
590 
592 
590 
590 
590 
590 

99 



760 



TABLE OF BIBLE PASSAGES. 



li- 19 590 

ii. 20 . . . . 584, 590 
ii.24 • . . .587,647 
ii. 24 et seq. ... 584 

iii 579 

iii. 4, 5 308 

iii. 18 308 

v. 5 38 

v. 8 44 

v. 9 et seq. . . . 525 

vi. 9 510 

vi. 11 510 



vi. 12, 13 








289 


vii. 4 . 








297 


vii. 9 . 








297 


ix. 20 . 








543 


xi. 3 ff . 








50 


xi. 6 . 








50 


xi. 19 . 








99 


xiii. 1 . 








269 


xiii. 10. 








426 


xiii. 18 . 








654 


xiv. 14 . 








315 


xvi. 18 et 


seq 






289 



xix. 7-9 
xix. 9 . 
xx. 4 . 
xx. 12-14 
xxi. 12 
xxi. 14 
xxi. 21 
xxii. 2 . 
xxii. 10 
xxii. 12 
xxii. 16 
xxii. 20 



. 308 

. 301 

. 510 

. 463 

. 180 
180, 485 

. 180 

. 297 

. 434 

. 434 

. 38 

. 434 



University Press: John Wilson & Son, Cambridge. 



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